KILLALA Quay showed the benefits of a breathing operation to return to winning ways for Chipping Norton trainer Charlie Longsdon with victory at Doncaster.

The ten-year-old, who had been pulled up on his previous three starts after pulling a shoe off at Chepstow, before hanging badly at Ascot and Sandown, returned to form with a vengeance under a powerful ride from Aidan Coleman.

The 5-1 shot and Saint Are were five lengths down on Ericht going over the last fence in a three-mile veterans’ handicap chase.

But with the leader treading water on the run-in, Killala Quay got home by a head from Saint Are, with a neck back to Ericht in third.

Longsdon said: “It is great to see him back in the winner’s enclosure after a short break for a wind operation.”

However, there was a sting in the tail for Coleman, who picked up a two-day whip ban, which leaves him sidelined on March 8 and 9.

Meanwhile, Longsdon revealed that Cheltenham Festival hope Our Kaempfer is likely to miss the Ultima Handicap Chase on March 14 in favour of a crack at the following day’s RSA Chase.

The trainer reasoned that the eight-year-old, an impressive winner at Kempton last month, was high enough in the handicap, while it would be his only chance to run in a novices’ event at the festival, and this year’s RSA Chase looks an open renewal.