THE opening two days of Galway saw a diverse cast of winning trainers, 14 different names across the 14 races, plenty of smaller yards getting in on the act, and Peter Lawlor giving voice to what it can mean to have a winner at the track after his Summer Snow won on Tuesday.

Emmet Mullins is a regular winner at the meeting, and he produced a fine training performance to take the Connacht Hotel Handicap with Filey Bay, the horse having been off the track for 623 days before his return in June.

In a well-run race, he came from off the pace to win easily, both the second Mon Coeur and the third Ragmans Corner meeting bits of traffic but not enough to suggest any other result. The fifth, English raider Wahraan, ran a huge race having had to make his challenge wide in the dip and coming up the near side rail in the finish.

One disappointing aspect of Monday’s feature was the contrast in what Emmet Mullins had to say about Toll Stone before and after the race. In a pre-race interview in the Racing Post, the trainer said that ‘hopefully Toll Stone has a big chance based on his run in the November Handicap’ among other positive words and no mention of a recent injury.

Post-race, however, Mullins revealed on Racing TV that ‘Toll Stone got struck into at Bellewstown on his prep run and he ended up standing in a stable for seven days, that wasn’t ideal. He had to get a few staples.’

Hardly an ideal preparation and, having been strong in the early markets, Toll Stone drifted late. A wide trip in the dip didn’t help either, but it would have been good to know about his slight setback beforehand.

Master of the hill

Tuesday’s feature, the Colm Quinn BMW Mile, went the way of track specialist Dunum who brought his form figures at Galway to an impressive: 13131 and was a welcome winner for Natalia Lupini, who had been having a quiet time, two winners from 60 runners since January prior to this.

The hill is probably the most discussed aspect of the track at Galway (aside from the craic!) but the dip is its own test that Dunum seems to revel in, using his pace to get away from the runner-up Bear Profit who closed him down all the way to the line.

With the ground drying out on the second day of the meeting, it was hard to come from off the pace and Seamie Heffernan again successfully made the running, the first three all taking up prominent positions, claimers Nicola Burns and Jimmy Dalton deserving credit for changing the usual tactics of their respective mounts Bear Profit and Orandi and going forward to get them into the frame.

Best of the hold-up horses was Howyoulikethat for Hilary McLoughlin, that one catching the eye in running on into sixth while meeting some trouble. He is an eight-year-old now and has had time off the track, but his mark has dropped, and it looks as if there could be another race in him, with a more conventional track likely to suit him better.

NAAS last Wednesday was run on yielding ground and, as is often the case when it is slower, the near side was favoured. That bias was apparent from the opening juvenile maiden when the stands’ side runners went clear early and the first six home were all drawn high.

In the circumstances, the seventh Chicago Pope ran quite well doing best of those drawn low and there should be improvement given the Johnny Murtagh yard don’t target two-year-old races. He also has a Futurity Stakes entry and cost €150,000.

By the time of the featured Yeomanstown Stud Irish EBF Stakes, nothing was staying far side in the sprint races, Tom Marquand shifting over from stall two on the winner Sky Majesty as soon as he could. This was the second recent boost for the Commonwealth Cup form in Ireland and, with three of the first eight home having won next time, it seems as strong a piece of form as there is in a muddled sprint scene.

One consequence of a lane of favoured ground is that riders all want to be on it, which leads to horses racing in tight quarters and traffic problems. There were a few sufferers in the six-furlong handicap, chief among them Send Harry who got no run at any point before finishing ninth. He had shaped well when badly drawn on his previous start at Navan too and looks on a good mark. In the same race, Carrigans Grove had a clear run but made her challenge more towards the middle of the track and hit a ridge over two furlongs out, which unbalanced her. She has been particularly consistent here and may prove best dropped to the minimum trip.

The bias was not as pronounced in the races run on the round course, though Goldsmith and Harriet Eagle ran better than the form in 0-60 over a mile. Goldsmith was slowly away and travelled well down the inner before meeting trouble, finishing well without his jockey asking for everything, while Harriet Eagle appeared stretched by the trip having went down the rail and has dropped below her last winning mark.

THE races at Leopardstown last Thursday were dominated by front-runners, though that was more to do with small fields producing steady gallops than the way the track was playing and, in the races where the pace was strong, hold up horses won.

Composing won the Silver Flash Stakes to give Aidan O’Brien a fourth straight win in the race and, like the three winners before her, she was sent off odds-on though her profile was slightly unusual for a potential high-class filly given Ryan Moore passed her over on her maiden runs, though she was well-backed in both.

She made all at a steady pace and her backers had few worries bar a flash of a tail on the bend while Smexy paid a little for chasing the winner’s quickening pace early in the straight and might have been second but for that.

The eventual second Skydance had been shaping as if this step up to seven furlongs would suit and it did to a point, but she would prefer a more truly-run race at the trip.

Flushing Meadows got turned over at a short price in the Tyros Stakes, Aidan O’Brien suggesting that he didn’t handle the bend afterwards, but he was beaten by a good prospect in North Coast, who himself was beaten by a better prospect last time in Daytona.

North Coast had travelled well last time at Naas and the drop in trip may have been a help, but Daytona went even better to win comfortably amidst greenness.

It is hard to know what sort of field a new race like the Pat Smullen Stakes would attract, especially as its position as a mile race in early July screams slow horses, but does not seem to have been the case at all.