Punchestown: Diverge on the Willie Mullins Cheltenham team after emphatic success

As if Willie Mullins' team for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle was not strong enough, the Chris Jones-owned Diverge put himself into contention after running out a 23-length winner of the opening maiden hurdle.

Having his second run over hurdles, the son of Frankel was sent to the front before halfway by Paul Townend, and from there he galloped and jumped his rivals into submission as he pulled further clear of the only previous bumper winner in the race, Mon Coeur.

The five-year-old received quotes of 33-1 with most firms for the festival opener in six weeks' time, and he is unlikely to run again before then.

Mullins said: "He improved a lot from his run at Leopardstown when he raced too keenly. I told Paul not to fight him too much. We thought there might be enough pace in the race but Paul was able to let him go on and enjoy himself, he loves jumping."

He added: "We originally bought him to run in the Triumph Hurdle but when we went to geld him last year there were complications and he almost died. We didn't manage to get him out until Christmas. Looking at that, I imagine we'll go for the Supreme instead of the Ballymore. He's a very sharp horse."

Mullins went on to complete a double when the Danny Mullins-ridden stable outsider Haxo, in the colours of the Noel Fehily Racing Syndicate, took advantage of the sloppy jumping of his better-fancied stablemate Sir Argus to score by a length.

"He's a second-season novice and jumped really well," said the champion trainer. "He's a nice type and he looks a real chaser.

"Sir Argus just seems to have lost his confidence after a fall at Clonmel. He's done plenty of schooling. We'll have to continue doing that and hope it works because he's well capable."

Ishan lands a punt

Sam Curling is proving himself a trainer adept at landing a gamble as the Philip Enright-ridden Ishan won the concluding 3m handicap hurdle.

As big as 28-1 earlier in the day, the five-year-old was sent off at 6-1 and stayed on strongly after the final flight to see of the persistent challenge from Killinure Lass and score by two and a quarter lengths.

The trainer said: "He had a good enough run at Tramore but could never go a yard on the heavy ground at Limerick. He's been coming along the whole time and took advantage of a bad race today.

"He was ready to run last year in a point-to-point but we thought he wasn't quite up to a four-year-old point-to-point, so we said we'd go hurdling. He's taken a bit of time to come to hand but is coming along nicely now. We'll try to find something similar now, and he'll jump a fence in time too."

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