The exciting L’Homme Presse returned from a 391-day absence to claim the valuable Fleur De Lys Chase at Lingfield on Sunday.

Winner of the 2022 Grade 1 Browns Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, the nine-year-old made a successful start in open company when taking the Rehearsal Chase at Newcastle before unseating at the final fence in the King George VII Chase on Boxing Day.

Although it appeared L'Homme Presse could fall victim to a front-running ride from Harry Skelton aboard Protektorat, the Venetia Williams-trained chaser jumped well throughout for Charlie Deutsch and showed his class up the run-in to score by two-and-a-quarter lengths. The pair pulled well clear of Sam Thomas' Iwilldoit, nineteen lengths behind in third.

"It's been a long time coming and I'm thrilled for Andy, Pat and Peter (owners) to have been as patient as they have been," said Venetia Williams.

"There were proper stayers in there today who were going to eke out any weakness and he's a stayer of course, but you can't expect them to plumb the depths of their stamina first time out after a long time off.

"It (injury) was enough to keep him off for a good few months and then the season was coming to an end and we wanted to give him a long, steady preparation this autumn. It's taken a while.

"In fairness, he hasn't had much schooling and I was going to school him this week, but wasn't able to because of the weather. He's an intelligent horse, though.

"We brought him here and he could possibly have run a bit earlier but the races weren't there. We wanted him to run somewhere where it was an appropriate race and we also had enough time to get him fit. I'm sure he will improve a bit, but don't expect masses of improvement."

With the Cheltenham Gold Cup firmly in connection's sights, Paddy Power shortened L'Homme Presse from 14/1 to 9/1 for the Blue Riband.