BALKO Des Flos was very good in winning TheTote.com Galway Plate on Wednesday, and Davy Russell was very good on him.

It is easy to say that a winning ride is a good ride. It was successful, you couldn’t have done any better, you achieved 100% success with the ride that you gave the horse, ergo it was a good ride. That is not always the case, but it is usually the perception.

This was a good ride. Davy Russell excels in the simple, which is what the good riders do. Keep things simple, ride your horse with maximum efficiency, minimise your expenditure of energy, maximise your chance of winning.

He may have been on the best horse in the race, but he still maximised his chance of winning, got him into a nice even rhythm early on, got him jumping, got him settled in a position in the race in which he was comfortable, allowed him ease clear on the run around the home turn before asking him to stretch.

You can argue that Shaneshill was a little unlucky, that he was travelling well when he made that bad mistake at the second last fence. He was, and he did well to ship that mistake, and Ruby Walsh did really well to have him balanced again before he jumped the final fence just six strides later, but it is probable that the winner won with plenty in hand. It is probable that Shaneshill was the second best horse in the race on the day.

MORE TO COME

It is obviously a significant win, a Galway Plate – “that was the plan” – but this victory also ignites the promise of more. Henry de Bromhead obviously had the Gigginstown House horse primed for Wednesday, but there is also the potential that it unlocks.

Remember, Balko Des Flos finished fifth behind Unowhatimeanharry in the Albert Bartlett Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2016, belying odds of 40/1, and he was running a big race in the JLT Chase at Cheltenham in March when he came down at the fourth last fence.

The Balko gelding is only six, and he has raced just seven times over fences in his life, so he has the scope to go higher still.

Carlingford Lough won the Grade 1 Topaz Chase and the Grade 1 Growise Chase during his Galway Plate-winning season, and he went on to win the Punchestown Gold Cup and the Irish Gold Cup twice.

Road To Riches won the JNWine.com Champion Chase and the Lexus Chase during the season after his Galway Plate win, before going to Cheltenham and finishing third in the Gold Cup. You never know how high Balko Des Flos could go now.