WILLIE Mullins is hoping to run at least five horses in the Tote.com Galway Plate on Wednesday. The champion trainer had five horses guaranteed a run at the latest forfeit stage yesterday afternoon and said: “all being well, they will take their chance.”

Of his five runners, bookmakers rate Shaneshill the highest. Graham Wylie’s eight-year-old has been running over hurdles for the past year and was last seen over fences when finishing second to Blaklion in the 2016 RSA Chase. Arbre De Vie and Haymount, two second season chasers, come next in the betting and the evergreen Ballycasey tops the weights in the field which has a safety limit off 22.

Mullins is also guaranteed a run with last season’s runner-up Alelchi Iniois but will have to wait and see if Sambremont or The Crafty Butcher, 27 and 28 on the card, can get into the race.

Mullins’s son Patrick reported Max Dynamite on target for the Galway Hurdle. He said of the Rich Ricci-owned gelding: “He finished second to Quick Jack in the race in 2015 and on that occasion his jumping just caught him out a little.

“He is coming back from an injury but he seems fine now and all being well he’ll go there with every chance. He has done really well on the flat so if he can convert that form, he’d be thereabouts. The prize money for the Hurdle is fantastic.”

GOOD CHANCE

Mullins also revealed that there is a good chance he will be riding Lagostovegas in the Connacht Hotel Handicap on Monday, a race he desperately wants to add to his CV.

“She was eye-catching in the way she won at Killarney and that win gives me the chance to ride her as if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to do the weight!” Mullins said.

“She ran well when finishing seventh in the race as a four-year-old last season and you’d like to think, a year older, she can do better going back there this season.”

Another Willie Mullins inmate, Riven Light, could be set for a drop down in trip in the Colm Quinn BMW Mile on Tuesday. The five-year-old ran to a decent standard over hurdles last season and also performed with credit on his first flat run in Ireland when second to Sea The Lion in a 12-furlong handicap at the Curragh.