The King Of Ballybrit made the perfect start to another Galway festival week when Diplomat took the opener for birthday boy Dermot Weld in the Galwaybayhotel.com & Radissonhotelgalway.com Novice Hurdle.

Dr Ronan Lambe's gelding was unsurprisingly a hotpot for the first race this evening and duly landed the spoils.

The 9/10 favourite was settled behind the leaders before cruising into contention at the second last in the two-mile event.

He soon hit the front and kept on gamely in the closing stages when asked for an effort, by Ruby Walsh, from the final flight.

English raider Sky Khan tried hard to peg him back on the run-in but could only get within a length at the line.

The former smart Flat performer had posted a cosy success at Sligo earlier in the month and was gaining his second success over timber. He looks set to turn out again tomorrow to bid for the hat-trick.

“He did it nicely. He was a little bit keener than Ruby would have wanted and as a result probably didn't win as impressively as we expected,” said Weld, who is 65 today. “I was a little concerned that he was going to tire at some stage.

“We'll see how he is in the morning and hopefully we'll run him back. The ground is beautiful and he's a relatively fresh horse.

“Hopefully we can get him relaxed a bit better. He got geed up at the start when a horse bumped into him and it set him alight.

“If we get him settled I believe he can come home a lot better than that. We had the right man on board today.

“It's a great start but it's a long week!”