Gaelic Warrior provided Willie Mullins and Paul Townend with an effortless win at Clonmel on Tuesday.
Given he was sent off the hugely prohibitive 1/14 favourite in the Munster Hurdle on a card transferred after being cancelled last week, he was only doing what was expected of him.
But having won by over 80 lengths on what was his Irish debut at Tramore in December, the Boodles Hurdle runner-up once again showed he possesses a big engine.
Bounced into an early advantage by Townend, he never saw another rival and while stablemate Blue Sari made grounds to claim second, he was still 15 lengths in arrears.
He did jump out to his right on occasions, just as he did when beaten at Cheltenham, but he was so far clear it was an irrelevance.
The sponsors trimmed the Rich Ricci-owned winner into 3/1 from 11/2 for the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury as a result, a race for which he picked up a 5lb penalty. He was given a mark of 144 by the British handicapper when the weights were revealed on Tuesday, meaning he would effectively race off 149 should he take up his Newbury entry.
As Gaelic Warrior is also still a novice, Coral cut him to 6/1 from 7s for the Ballymore at Cheltenham in March.
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Townend said: “He was entitled to do it. We didn’t learn any more about him, but got more experience into him. He is a lovely horse.
“It is very hard work out there and he is hard enough on himself too but took breathers – the ground is proper testing.”
Regarding his tendency to jump right, he added: “I was trying to keep out to the outside (on better ground) but all the room was to the right, which was always going to happen.
“He does prefer to go right to correct himself but when he is racing and going about it, he straightens up. Hopefully he can make up for the disappointment at Cheltenham last year.”
Mullins and Townend had already struck earlier on the card with another impressive odds-on winner Night And Day (2/5 favourite) in the Kilsheelan Mares Maiden Hurdle.
She is an 8/1 chance for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle in March.
“She was doing nice work last year and was thrown in very deep (in a Fairyhouse Grade One) and she has a future, that’s for sure,” said Townend.
“The hurdles are nearly too small for her, with the size of her and she will even improve for a fence but has a future over hurdles first.”
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