The sponsors left The Reverend unchanged at 25/1 for the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle after he won on hurdling debut at Cork on Saturday.
Rated 102 on the Flat for William Haggas, the Tony Bloom-owned five-year-old has switched to the Willie Mullins yard for his jumps campaign and he got off to a pleasing start over timber in the Happy New Year From All At Cork Maiden Hurdle.
The son of Lope de Vega often sported cheekpieces on the level but he was turned out in a first-time hood on his first go over hurdles with the returning Paul Townend settling him in a prominent position from the outset.
As you would expect, he wasn't foot perfect at his hurdles and he took a bit of a chance at the last two, but he was safe enough to make his class tell and he ran out an easy enough four-and-three-quarter length winner at the line.
Mullins has had odds-on favourites beaten in this race before, notably Alastor (1/4), Adamantly Chosen (1/4) and Gjoumi (8/11) in recent years, but The Reverend defied the trend to win at odds of 4/11 favourite.
Bookmaker reaction was mixed with several taking Sky Bet's stance, including Paddy Power who are also unchanged at 25s, but BetVictor were impressed enough to go 14/1 about him for the Supreme with bet365 and Unibet cutting him to 16s.
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Townend said: "He loves it doesn’t he, we tried the hood on him just in case but he settled lovely and did everything nicely.
"The settling and the taking to jumps side of racing was the pleasing thing today, you’d have been disappointed if he couldn’t account for this opposition with the form he had.
"He’s not big but he’s hardy, jumps well, he’ll be a good ride for someone."
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