Ninth Titan easily wins his maiden hurdle under Townend

The Willie Mullins trained Ninth Titan took a significant step forward from his only previous start over flights when making most of the running to easily win the Try Racing TV For Free At racingtv.com/freetrial Maiden Hurdle at Tramore.

A four-time winner on the flat in France, the horse had disappointed in a maiden hurdle at Galway last August on his initial outing over jumps.

Given plenty of time to mature in the interim, the six-year-old looked a totally different proposition here, jumping and travelling easily under Paul Townend.

In front from early on, Townend extended his advantage after three out, with only Rachael Blackmore on main market rival Elusive Prince able to throw down any sort of meaningful challenge.

Having seen off the latter after two out, Ninth Titan could afford to bunny hop the last on his way to an impressive seven-and-a-half length win.

Paul Townend said: "He is a huge horse for around here and he was dossing a bit in front.

"He was obviously disappointing in Galway but works really nicely at home. The ground was possibly a reason for Galway, but it was just a no show. He has probably filled into himself again and if he had never went to Galway, he done what we wanted him to do today. We will put a line through Galway and I think he is a nice horse.

"He enjoys a bit of nice ground and that was against him in Galway. Hopefully he can build on this and he has another run got now over hurdles. He jumped well and he was entitled to do what he did on what he shows us at home, even with the penalty."

Additional reporting by Donal Murphy.