Diplomat puts down Galway marker

Diplomat booked his ticket to join Dermot Weld’s all-conquering Galway Festival team with an easy victory in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Novice Hurdle at Sligo yesterday.

The four-year-old had been winless in three previous tries over timber but with one or two bits of very useful Flat form to his name.

Chief among his better efforts on the level was a third to Aidan O’Brien’s Group One star Declaration Of War at the Curragh in September 2012.