WE always knew this weekend would deliver a shake-up to the Cheltenham Festival novice hurdling picture but not many expected to this extent.

Salvator Mundi is no longer the Willie Mullins number-one Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hope after a Kopek Des Bordes demolition job, and The New Lion has been usurped at the head of the Turners Novices’ Hurdle market by Final Demand.