Smallest big-race field in a decade lines out for Galway festival feature
Galway festival
feature, the €120,000 Colm Quinn BMW Mile, is the smallest for a decade.
Normally there's competition to make the maximum limit of 18 runners but this time the Day Two feature seems to underline broader trends.
Horse Racing Ireland
statistics for the first half of 2025 show that entries for flat races are down 7.8 per cent on the same period last year. The average field size for flat races is down 1.8 per cent compared to an increase for jumps races.
The prospect of a deficit for what's traditionally one of Galway's most fiercely competitive handicaps would have been unlikely even a year ago, when Mexicali Rose beat 17 opponents.
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A non-runner in 2018 meant Riven Light beat 16 rivals, but it requires going back to 2015 to see 14 runners led home by Hint Of A Tint. There were also 14 declarations in 2012.
With a hefty six-figure pot up for grabs, and the race's notable history, it smacks of a feeble turnout.
Last year's runner up Norwalk Havoc is back to try to go one better but off a 3lb higher rating. The 2023 winner Coeur D'or is back too, as is the course specialist Dunum, who was third that year.
The big Mile is a rare gap on
Aidan O'Brien
's CV and Jack Cleary takes 5lbs off the Ballydoyle hope Mississippi River. Tony Martin will be looking for an ease in the ground for his Irish Lincolnshire winner Orandi, who hasn't run since finishing third in the English Lincoln last March.
Big Galway handicaps often see the culmination of lengthy planning but Slieve Binnian hardly fits that category. He is the only one of the 14 runners with a pair of '1's' next to his name having landed a pair of €100,000 handicaps on his last two starts.
A win on Irish Derby-day was followed by a stylish success in Nasrullah Handicap at Leopardstown earlier this month.
Formerly with Michael Halford and Tracey Collins, the grey is in the form of his life and trainer David Marnane has made no secret of how he thinks this Galway test could be ideal for him.
Still, one negative is that Slieve Binnian has never run around Galway before and course form is always a plus in Ballybrit.
Tom Gibney's stalwart Imposing Supreme is a prime example with four course victories to his credit. On the back of a promising comeback effort at Killarney recently he can compete again off a mark of 76 in a later handicap.
Rampage is also a course and distance winner who goes in the finale. The form of his recent all-weather success was boosted in Gowran at the weekend.
The juvenile fillies' maiden has a rare roll of honour with subsequent classic winners Tahiyra (2022), Hermosa (2018) and Legatissimo (2014) all breaking their duck here.
Thenandnow and Amelia Earhart filled the frame behind Phenomenal Filly at Leopardstown and clash again. However, Paddy Twomey has a line to both through his newcomer Black Caviar Gold who holds a Moyglare entry. Twomey won this with Purple Lily two years ago.
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The Irish Sun
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Irish Times
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Kelsey Leonard: I'm definitely capable of becoming boxing world champion
If you've ever had even a passing interest in boxing , you'll have seen videos of world champions doing mittwork. In most of these the boxer effortlessly tip-taps away, while the coach does most of the movement . The fighter simply rotates his fists into position and a heavy clap rings around the gym. It's the showy way of hitting pads, impressing only the most surface level viewers, and it gave the whole practice a bad name for a while. What's going on inside the ring in Kildare's UNIT 3 gym is proper padwork. Everything here is based in real scenarios, and even with a body protector and mitts, coach Niall Barrett is taking a serious beating from the two boxers. READ MORE One at a time, they're in with a combination, then pulling back as Barrett fires warning shots, then tearing back into their coach, before pivoting and disappearing out of his sight. 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She followed in Taylor's footsteps last year, when she won the Haringey Box Cup, Europe's largest amateur boxing competition held in London every year. It bodes well for transitioning into the paid ranks, but professional boxing isn't a straightforward way to earn a living. 'It's quite hard financially, especially starting off. Roughly, it costs between four and five grand to fight each time. I could just get a full-time job and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I just know what I'm capable of.' [ All-Irish world title fight confirmed for Windsor Park in Belfast Opens in new window ] Kelsey Leonard and Michaela Walsh face each other in the 2024 IABA National Elite Championships Women's 57kg Finals. Photograph: INPHO/ Laszlo Geczo There's definitely a set up at UNIT 3 for her to do just that. Originally operating out of a single unit, with a commercial gym to the front and a small boxing ring to the back, the gym has expanded massively in the past couple of years. Now, the boxing side of operations takes place in a much bigger unit, with a full-scale ring standing alongside the old three-quarter-size model. Add in a recovery centre (hot tub, cold plunge, sauna) next door and you're looking at a pretty ideal modern facility. 'It's mental. It just used to be the small unit, which, at the time, felt like it was huge. There was so much going on and even that was top class. 'Now, we have the place next door, we have the recovery unit. We do boxing, strength and conditioning, core sessions, it's just everything you need in one spot.' The gym is hidden away within a warren of industrial estates in Naas . With 30 minutes left of the morning session, Barrett is standing in the centre of the ring with six or seven pairs of boxers crammed in. He is directing an infighting drill, where they jostle and shove and punch at vanishingly short range. 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