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Salvator Mundi looks Cheltenham Festival-bound after joining an illustrious roll of honour list in the Grade 2 Sky Bet Club Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown on Sunday.
The son of No Risk At All chased home the highly-exciting Arkle favourite Sir Gino on his debut at Auteuil in France, before finishing sixth in last season's Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival on his first outing for Willie Mullins.
A facile maiden hurdle success at Tipperary in the spring had plenty of people purring over the thought of seeing him back up in grade and although they had to wait 242 days, Salvator Mundi proved it was worth the wait when overcoming plenty of errors to join the likes of Vautour (2014), Douvan (2015) and Min (2016) on the Moscow Flyer winners list.
The Joe Donnelly-owned five-year-old raced keenly throughout under Townend and although his jumping left little to be desired, he moved into contention on the approach to the second last. Another far-from-fluent leap at the penultimate flight quickly put him on the back foot once more, but he soon worked his way back into a challenging position down the outside before swooping to the front. Once again, he was in tight to the final hurdle, but it didn't matter, as he strode clear in fine style to score by three lengths from the JP McManus-owned stablemate Kel Histoire.
Paddy Power cut Salvator Mundi to 4/1 favourite (from 5s) for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March.
Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father, said: "The engine is massive," said Patrick Mullins, assistant trainer to his father Willie. "After half a mile I thought this horse can't win on his first run in six months when he's pulling like that on heavy ground.
"Because he was keen Paul didn't want to let him jump and he didn't jump, so he'd every reason to get beaten and still won. It looked to me like he took a blow after the second-last and you could see Paul went down and gave him a squeeze and came with a run down to the last. He kept everything tight down to the last and there should be a lot of improvement there.
"I think in a faster run race, being let jump, he'll improve. Paul couldn't let him jump today because he would have been even keener and jumping his way to the front. I wouldn't be worried about his jumping in a stronger run race.
"I think he's probably had a hard race today and I wouldn't be surprised if he went straight to Cheltenham."
Speaking on Racing TV, Townend added: "It was messy, he was fresh and keen early, so I couldn't use his jumping. We know he can jump well but I couldn't let him jump.
"He quickened up well on dead ground and did plenty wrong but still won. He'll have to build on it, but I think he will. He can jump much better than that, I thought to miss hurdles at crucial times and still win was taking."
