‘The bigger the field the bigger the certainty’ is an old maxim quoted by many punters and it proved spot on for the second time at Navan this afternoon as Longhouse Poet justified evens favouritism in the Hotel Park St Johann Tirol Austria Maiden Hurdle.

Festival D’ex had seen off 25 rivals half-an-hour earlier at odds of 5/4 and Longhouse Poet, also a bumper winner at the Punchestown Festival earlier this year, again proved too strong in a big field maiden hurdle.

Derek O’Connor’s mount, runner-up to Elixir D’ainay on his hurdle debut at Naas last month, was prominent throughout and asserted soon after the last in this 2m4f event.

Column Of Fire finished best without troubling the winner to get within a length and a quarter at the line, while Opposites Attract belied odds of 33/1 just half-a-length back in third.

Winning trainer Martin Brassil said, "He looks to be a nice horse. Hopefully we'll find out a bit more when he steps into something else. I haven't anything planned and we might look at a graded race in the New Year.

“We'll probably make an entry anyway in the Grade 1 at Naas and that would be an ideal place as well.

“Derek seemed to be quite impressed with him anyway. He's never got beaten on him as he won his point-to-point and his bumper on him.

“He's a horse to look forward to. Maybe we'll have better days but we won't know that until we delve into that area. It's nice to have a horse like him anyway.”

Longhouse Poet remains 25/1 with Betfair for the Ballymore Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham.

(GC & AM)