Willie Mullins and Paul Townend today combined for their first winners of 2024 with I Will Be Baie (11/8) landing Fairyhouse's ITM Irish Stallion Trail 12-13 January Maiden Hurdle in the colours of the Roaringwater Syndicate.

Galway festival bumper winner I Will Be Baie's jumping was far better than unwieldy My Trump Card (4/9f), whose technique lacked any fluency, and moved past his principal market rival to lead at the second last, scoring by 2.75 lengths.

Mullins' assistant David Casey later reported “it was great, he did it well and jumped well. We weren't sure how he'd handle the heavy ground but Paul said he went through it okay. He said he won well.

“He won his point-to-point well and jumped well throughout. Hopefully we'll find a race for him in a few weeks and see where we go from there.

“The runner-up (My Trump Card) was a decent winner of the a bumper and had a bit of jumping experience on his side - he set a nice standard so I thought it was a good performance to win.”

Quotes from Gary Carson