Latest news with #Galway festival
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Smallest big-race field in a decade lines out for Galway festival feature
A field of just 14 runners for Tuesday evening's 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. READ MORE 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.
Irish Times
12 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Poignant success in Galway festival feature for Alan O'Sullivan aboard Filey Bay
The death of renowned trainer Edward O'Grady made for an unusually sombre start to the 2025 Galway festival on Monday evening where Filey Bay delivered an evocative success in the featured Connacht Hotel Handicap. The JP McManus-owned 7-1 shot justified significant market support to win the biggest prize of the year for amateur riders under jockey Alan O'Sullivan. It was a poignant success for O'Sullivan whose older brother Michael tragically died in February from injuries sustained in a fall at Thurles in an incident that devastated racing and beyond. After cooly guiding Filey Bay to an ultimately smooth defeat of Mon Coeur, with Ragmans Corner in third, O'Sullivan looked to the skies before paying tribute to O'Grady who passed away on Sunday. READ MORE Like all riders on Monday, O'Sullivan (21) wore a black armband in memory of the 75-year-old former champion trainer who had been a mainstay of Irish racing for more than half a century. Coming just months after the loss of his Cheltenham Festival winning older brother, it was a heartfelt message that chimed with popular delight for the big race winning rider and his family. Owner JP McManus, jockey Alan O'Sullivan and trainer Emet Mullins after winning with Filey Bay. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho 'My goal at the start of the year was to be good enough that someone might want me for this [race]. He was looking down on me, I think,' said O'Sullivan. 'I probably went the brave man's route, but I thought it's what Mikey would have done. I got a dream run and he galloped all the way to the line.' Filey Bay was a second winner on the day for McManus which felt apt in the circumstances. Back in the 1970s it was O'Grady that nurtured McManus's racing interest beyond gambling and bookmaking into becoming the most significant owner in jump racing history. He saddled McManus's first Cheltenham Festival winner, Mister Donovan in 1982, and continued to train for him until his death on Sunday aged 75. The renowned businessman was in Ballybrit and fondly remembered his old ally as 'something special'. He said: 'When Edward fancied a horse, and gave you the office, you didn't need to have money; all you needed to have was credit, because you always felt he would deliver.' Filey Bay's trainer Emmet Mullins is rapidly carving out a similar reputation and won the big race for a second time in three years. He saddled three in it and although another of his hopes, Toll Stone, was weak in the betting, market trends pointed to confidence in the winner. 'It was meant to be and I'm a bit lost for words,' he said. 'It was Michael's saddle that Alan was using today. Michael rode a few times for me here and I think we hit the crossbar twice, so Alan steadied the ship.' Jockey Alan O'Sullivan celebrates winning with Filey Bay. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho O'Grady trained the Day One feature winner, Kentucky Charm, 20 years ago, part of a festival CV that also included three Plate victories in four years between 1978-1981 and a Galway Hurdle in 1979. McManus's opening winner was the regally bred odds-on shot Davy Crockett whose trainer Willie Mullins pointed to how his former colleague's Cheltenham Festival tally of 18 winners set the bar for him and others in more recent years. 'He was the foremost trainer going to Cheltenham, when no one [from Ireland] was having runners or winners in Cheltenham. He was having one or two of them every year,' said Mullins who nominated the Royal Bond at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival as a target for the winner. There was an even shorter priced winner of the two-year-old maiden when Constitution River landed 1-5 odds with ease under Wayne Lordan. However, there was some reprieve for bookmakers when Jerrari scored in the handicap hurdle. British based trainer David Loughnane returned to his native Galway to saddle a first festival winner with It'sneverjustone, successful in the seven-furlong handicap. 'It'll take a while for this one to sink in. It's magical. I grew up on the hurdy gurdy's across the road looking in on this place and the noise of the horses galloping past. I don't come from racing. This was my Everest for a long time now. It's very special,' Loughnane said. Monday's opening festival attendance of 18,472 was up almost eight per cent from last year's tally of 17,074.
Irish Times
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
McMonagle goes into Galway festival top of the jockeys table after Gowran hat-trick
Donegal's Dylan Browne McMonagle goes into the Galway festival top of the pile among Ireland's flat jockeys and has a trio of Day One rides to look forward to. The former champion apprentice enjoyed a 29-1 hat-trick at Gowran Park on Saturday which shot him to the top of the jockeys standings. McMonagle is now on 52 winners for the year, two ahead of Colin Keane who is suspended. Chris Hayes is third on 44 while Billy Lee, out injured with a broken collarbone, has 40. It puts the 22-year-old rider from Letterkenny in an enviable position to try and pick up a first senior title. READ MORE Emit's success in the Listed Marble City Stakes was the highlight of McMonagle's Gowran three-timer which opened with another success for his boss Joseph O'Brien on Alibah. Adrian Murray's Crypto Force completed the day. All three McMonagle rides at Galway are for O'Brien including the newcomer Spangled Sands in the two-year-old maiden. Dermot Weld has won the race 24 times including with stars such as Grey Swallow in 2003. He relies on the newcomer Masaban this time although the one to beat looks likely to be Constitution River. Aidan O'Brien's colt was beaten just a short head on his debut at Newmarket earlier this month and that experience could prove crucial. It could also tee up Derby winner Wayne Lordan for another successful festival. He was top flat rider last year with five winners. Galway's top trainer Willie Mullins kicks off the week with a couple of intriguing runners. Davy Crockett is a half-brother to Mystical Power who won the opening hurdle in 2023 before graduating to top-class status. His younger sibling is by Camelot and won a bumper easily at Punchestown last month. The runner-up there has been beaten since and goes in Monday's finale. But Davy Crockett could still have too much quality for these. Mullins gives the 105-rated Rakki a first start in the following handicap hurdle. Formerly in the care of Alan King, the half-brother to St Leger winner Masked Marvel ran 12 times without success, including three times over flights. The third of those was in Newbury last December. Rakki hasn't looked straightforward at times but is an interesting recruit to the Mullins team. He carries the colours of the syndicate that landed the 2016 Galway Hurdle with Clondaw Warrior. He also won at the 2015 festival and at Royal Ascot that year.
