After an enlightening cameo alongside Lydia Hislop and Ruby Walsh on Racing TV’s Road To Cheltenham show prior to racing at Punchestown on Sunday, Paul Townend kept the killer quotes coming during the afternoon.

If, like me, you could listen to someone as subtle and self-deprecating as Townend talk about the nuances of jumps racing all day, then you were in luck and probably did just that. With Willie Mullins reportedly enjoying some warmer weather elsewhere at present, the jockey was left to provide plenty of the post-race discourse too following stable success for Lecky Watson, Kappa Jy Pyke and Salvator Mundi in the Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle.

“I would say it was going to be hard to be impressive,” Townend stated after Salvator Mundi came home in a late scramble to seal a one-two for the champion trainer in the Grade 2 feature.

And for all his insight into King George hero Banbridge potentially dropping back in trip for the Ryanair at Cheltenham, and Majborough sprouting wings almost against Mark Walsh’s will in the beginners’ event at Fairyhouse last month, I’d wager that simple line was the single most informative comment to take away from Sunday’s sport.

WATCH: Salvator Mundi wins Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle

From flag-fall, it had the look of a performance that was going to divide opinion. The heavily-punted 8/15 favourite was on his toes to say the least beforehand, tossing his head up in the air on several occasions as they circled down at the start, and then proceeded to run keenly, jump sloppily under considerable restraint before taking a while to engage top gear on the run to the last.

But run hard to the last he did, and it was that half-furlong burst after turning for home that marked Salvator Mundi down as a proper novice going places.

The runner-up effort in France behind Sir Gino was always in the book to be fair. Last season’s run in the Triumph Hurdle also hinted at lots more to come, while the subsequent 62-length maiden triumph was bizarrely straightforward and kept most of us guessing to some extent seeing as the time wasn’t anything extraordinary, yet the visual impression most certainly was.

Sunday puts the stamp on it for me and, for all that his jumping will no doubt need to be better on the big day, I completely understand why he’s now the clear market leader around 4/1 for the Sky Bet Supreme in March.

Perhaps the only slightly odd thing is that that particular mission appears to have been chosen almost straight after last year’s Festival. In recent times we’ve become accustomed to playing a slightly dicey game backing Mullins’ novice hurdlers long-term, with Impaire Et Passe and Ballyburn’s targets still in the balance until very late during the past two seasons alone.

This year, getting Salvator Mundi to the Supreme has evidently been very high on the agenda at Closutton all along and there’s been practically zero talk of him even potentially going out in trip for the Turners.

On Sunday’s evidence that all ties together with a great deal of sense and, with Townend’s “hard to be impressive” comment still occupying the mind, punters seem bound to keep nibbling at the 4/1, the 3/1 and the almost inevitable shorter prices as the possible field naturally whittles down in the run-up to the Festival opener.

He could be 6/4 unless The New Lion shows up, couldn’t he?

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