Patrick Mullins feels in-form Facile Vega deserves more credit ahead of Novice Hurdle test

Facile Vega and High Definition are all set to take each other on in a Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle not to be missed at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Already odds-on for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, that price tends to be based more around what Facile Vega achieved in bumpers last season, including a stylish victory in the championship event in March.

He has won both starts over timber to date and the son of six-times Festival winner Quevega will be all the rage for the first race of the big meeting should he win again.

Assistant trainer Patrick Mullins rode him in all his bumpers and said: "I suppose he has his critics but that is probably based on the price he is for the Supreme, I don't think anyone is knocking the horse for what he's done.

"I was more impressed than most people at Christmas, more so because of Paul's (Townend) body language, he didn't really ask him to race until after the last and that form has worked out, both Ashroe Diamond (third) and Path D'Oroux (fourth) have won since.

"So I think that performance was a lot better than he was given credit for at the time."

Mullins' father Willie will also saddle another unbeaten runner in the race in Dark Raven who defied a 631-day absence to make a winning hurdling debut at Leopardstown, form which has subsequently been franked.

"He is a horse who doesn't show us an awful lot at home but every time he goes to the track he looks a different animal," said Mullins jnr.

"It's a big step up in class for him but we think he's more than worthy of his place in the line up."

Il Etait Temps, who has four lengths to find with Facile Vega, completes the Mullins trio.

It is far from a Mullins benefit, though, with one-time Derby favourite High Definition, now with Joseph O'Brien,