Moon Rise Beauty gets Mullins off to winning start

Willie Mullins, who was crowned leading trainer at the Galway festival on Sunday, continued where he left off, with his Moon Rise Beauty winning the opening race on Bank Holiday Monday, the Mallow Mares Maiden Hurdle at Cork.

With her main danger Gaye Winnie declared a non runner, the daughter of Spanish Moon was sent off at the prohibitive odds of 1-8f to go one place better than her runner-up effort over course and distance last month.

Always prominent under Paul Townend, the six-year-old sat third behind Zoomtime and Half Off Six Pence for much of the race, before being produced to take over the lead after the third last.

Quickly asserting to go clear of her rivals, only a slight mistake at the final flight gave those that took the short odds any real cause to worry.

Paul Townend: “We decided to keep it as simple as we could, although the mistake at the last made it a bit harder.

“Her jumping is coming together, she’s getting a bit more confidence and hopefully will keep improving.”

Additional reporting by Alan Magee.