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Irish Examiner
6 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Comfort Zone favourite for opening day feature at Galway Races
Galway's seven-day summer festival gets underway with a seven-race programme and Comfort Zone can land the opening day feature, the Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders' Handicap, for Joseph O'Brien and Derek O'Connor. The six-year-old dual-purpose performer contested the two-mile-four Ascot Stakes on his most recent outing and had plenty of work to do from a wide draw. He also didn't enjoy the best of luck at a crucial stage and ran brilliantly to be beaten just three parts of a length behind Ascending. From a decent draw, he should be able to race handily this time and, with stamina as a strong suit, it will be no surprise if he goes on from a long way out and tries to draw the sting out of his rivals. The classy sort can land the spoils at the expense of Toll Stone and Too Bossy For us. The former is closely matched with the selection on old form, and he did exceptionally well to beat Mr Percy in a Flat handicap at this meeting in 2024, doing so from a wide draw. He is almost certainly better than his mark of 86 and can play a leading role. Too Bossy For Us is an obvious candidate following his good run at the Curragh. Still quite lightly raced and representing Willie Mullins, who has won five of the last eight renewals of this race, his claims are clear. The nap goes to Aviatrice, an all-weather winner who can put a first turf win on her card by taking the Clayton Hotel Galway Handicap for David Marnane. Unraced until the October of her two-year-old season, she made little impact first time up but finished runner-up on her next two starts before getting off the mark at the fourth time of asking, just seven weeks after making her debut. Off for almost seven months after that win, she made her return in mid-June at Limerick and ran a big race to finish runner-up to progressive stablemate Amemri. On her most recent start, she contested a competitive race at Leopardstown but enjoyed little luck in running and ran much better than the fourth-place finish might suggest. It is encouraging that the third-placed Shelbiana won next time up and, with the selection's handicap mark left at 80, there is every reason to expect a bold showing. From a decent draw, she can lie handy and the stiff climb to the finish should play to her strengths. Honeysuckle Rose is a live danger, and were Spanish Temptress to get called in from the reserves, the impressive Killarney winner would merit plenty of respect. Rakki is of obvious interest in the Iggy Daly Easyfix Handicap Hurdle as he is making his debut for Willie Mullins having earned an opening mark of 105 for previous connections. The market will reveal expectation but, without the benefit of that, Prove Yourself is the one to side with. Ross O'Sullivan's lightly raced sort won a maiden at Tramore and followed up with a decent effort on his handicap debut, from a 1lb lower mark than he runs off today. A recent promising effort on his Flat debut has teed him up for the this assignment and he makes plenty of each-way appeal. GALWAY 5:10 Davy Crockett 5:40 Prove Yourself 6:10 Constitution River 6:40 Comfort Zone (nb) 7:15 Aviatrice (nap) 7:50 Bear Creek 8:20 Coutach Next best 5:10 A Snow White Park 5:40 Rakki 6:10 Masaban 6:40 Toll Stone 7:15 Spanish Temptress 7:50 Desmond Castle 8:20 Faith Of Empires
Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
'I strongly fancy a Familiar 10-1 shot to score on day one of the Galway Races'
The opening night featured Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap is the amateur rider's big race of the week and has thrown up some great stories in the past. Incredibly, 61 years ago Dermot Weld won the race for the first time as a jockey on Tirconderoga while 50 years ago the Master of Rosewell house rode Spanner, a horse trained by himself, to a hat-trick of victories. Willie Mullins has also a proud record in the race and 40 years ago he tasted success as jockey on Pargan and has since won five times as a trainer. Decades later these pair of Irish horse racing legends are back and hunting more glory in the 2025 version, and it promises to be another exciting start to this seven-day Festival. 5.10 - Galway Bay Novice Hurdle 2m The Festival's opening race and a contest that has produced some smart Willie Mullins' trained winners like Easy Game and Mystical Power in recent years. Mullins' DAVY CROCKETT is a half-brother to the Grade 1 winning Mystical Power and is out of the Champion Hurdle winner Annie Power, who also won here at the Festival. He was well-backed on his debut in a bumper at Punchestown and won like a smart horse and could prove difficult to beat on his hurdling debut. Chortal brings plenty of experience while Mick Collins probably should have won at Bellewstown last time out and will be on the premises. TIP: DAVY CROCKETT Each-way: Mick Collins 5.40 - Iggy Daly Easyfix Handicap Hurdle 2m PAUL COLLINS is an ex-Robcour-owned and Gordon Elliott-trained gelding that's now in Brian McMahon's yard and he does look on a handy mark. He ran his best race for some time when second at Kilbeggan in April and was keeping better company than this when trained in Cullentra. It's a wide open race and another who could run into a place is Ross O'Sullivan's Prove Yourself, who won at Tramore and has since finished third at Roscommon and Kilnbeggan. TIP: PAUL COLLINS Each-way: Prove Yourself 6.10 - Eventus Irish EBF (C & G) Maiden 7f It's difficult to get away from the chances of CONSTITUTION RIVER for Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore in the week's first flat race. The son of Wootton Bassett was beaten only a short-head on his debut at Newmarket and given the way Ballydoyle juveniles usually improve for their first run, his chances look strong. Dermot Weld is not the force of old at Galway but he usually keeps some nice juveniles for the Festival and his Masaban is likely run well in the colours of the late Aga Khan. TIP: CONSTITUTION RIVER Each-way: Masaban 6.40 - Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap 2m The traditional opening night feature and race that Willie Mullins, who first won this as a jockey 40 years ago, has an enviable recent record with five wins since 2017. Mullins' smart juvenile hurdler Too Bossy For Us could start favourite with his son and champion amateur jump jockey Patrick booked to ride. His credentials are strong but our preference is for Mullins' old foe Gordon Elliott with a fascinating filly named FAMILIAR DREAMS. (Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire) Originally a very cheap 4,000 guineas purchase, Familiar Dreams won four bumpers for trainer Anthony McCann — including a Grade 3 prize at the Punchestown festival — before being sold for a hefty €310,000 price tag to Elliott and Qatar Racing. She won a strong flat race at Tramore last summer before embarking on a hurdles campaign that saw her run okay in two end of season Grade 1 races at Aintree and Punchestown. She's changed ownership again and looks primed for a big run with young Josh Williamson claiming 7lbs The Shunter is now a 12-year-old but the one-time Cheltenham Festival winner ran well here at this meeting last year and has another big run in him for Emmet Mullins and JP McManus. TIP: FAMILIAR DREAMS (nap) Each-way: The Shunter 7.15 - Clayton Hotel Galway Handicap 7f Joseph O'Brien and Dylan Browne McMonagle are in serious form and both trainer and jockey are operating off a strike rate better than 20 percent at the moment. They team up with HONEYSUCKLE ROSE here and from a good draw the filly should give a bold bid, having won a maiden and run well to finish third on her handicap debut at Gowran Park last month. Gangsta Man is given an each-way shout for Wesley Joyce and Kevin Smith having won at Roscommon and losing his chance at the Curragh next time out when stumbling out of the stalls. TIP: HONEYSUCKLE ROSE Each-way: Gangsta Man 7.50 - Grá Chocolates Handicap 1m4f Aidan O'Brien's horses in a handicap are always worth consideration and although PROPOSE has top weight to shoulder here, he does bring a level of form well above his rivals. The son of Frankel was considered good enough to go to Royal Ascot and previous to that disappointing run he won a maiden at the Curragh on Guineas weekend. A bit of ease in the ground will help and he'll have no issue with the 1m4 distance. Miss Nifty can run into a place for Sheila Lavery and Rory Cleary. A recent arrival from the UK, she ran well at Leopardstown last time out and the Meath woman's horses often go well at this Festival. TIP: PROPOSE Each-way: Miss Nifty 8.20 - Monami Construction Flat Race 2m A four-year-old bumper to finish this eclectic mix of racing where FAITH OF EMPIRES is a speculative choice with little or no form to go by. An usually Turkish bred gelding, he runs in the Mee family's colours and Emmet Mullins has booked top amateur rider Johnny Gleeson. TIP: FAITH OF EMPIRES Each-way: Maskarvel GALWAY DAY ONE SELECTIONS BRIAN FLANAGAN Davy Crockett Paul Collins Constitution River Familiar Dreams (nap) Honeysuckle Rose Propose Faith Of Empires
