WHAT is it about Galway? The same question gets asked every year. It’s a difficult one to answer without resorting to the usual: “Ah it’s just Galway, I don’t know what it is, it’s just Galway.”

It’s an institution, is what it is. It’s like going back to your favourite restaurant and ordering your favourite meal, and being as content as the first time. There is something gloriously simple about it. Going back to the same place you’ve been to year on year and having that same feeling as before, the same one you got when you walked into the Galway races as a child.

Seeing the same people, the same hotels, the same trainers going well, the same roar from the crowd, the same maiden Dermot Weld usually wins on the first day, the same horse that ran well on the Tuesday coming out and winning on the Friday, the same rush over to the Ladbrokes tent to watch Goodwood and Perth, usually the same trudge back, the same big screen to stare at, the same big long turning rail into the straight, the same hill to climb.

Then you have the same route back into town “for the craic and for the porter” as Christy Moore sings in his magnificent Galway Races-themed “The Ballad of Ruby Walsh.”

The same pubs heaving, the same streets packed, the same craic, the same takeaways doing their best business of the year, the same gobshites trying to get into the same casinos to go chasing money (I’m guilty as charged), the same test of resolve in the task to flag a taxi, the same chancers who came down with nowhere to stay asking can they have a space on your floor.

Then to sleep, and the next day, the same. Stick on Christy there and we’ll go again.

GRAND VIEW

And yet it is unfair to suggest, as I have, that everything is the same. Galway racecourse has been a changing for a while now. When you walk in next week from the Ballybrit entrance, your eyesight will be struck straight away by the brand new €6 million Wilson Lynch building. This will offer a grand view of the parade ring, bookies ring and on to the track. The rush to Ladbrokes will also now be a less strenuous one as the Magic Sign are set to pitch up on the bottom floor of the building.

And yet more improvements are in the pipeline. Just two weeks ago the racecourse announced plans to begin a redevelopment of the parade ring, with new facilities to be built either side, for which construction is set to begin within the next three to four years. That’s Galway racecourse for you. Continually looking to improve the experience.

The trends have changed, in particular, the choice of days most head for Ballybrit. Thursday’s Ladies Day attract the biggest crowd but Friday evening, once a hidden gem but now definitely a found treasure, has rapidly increased in popularity.

On the flip side, Wednesday, Galway Plate day, has gone the other way which has been a real pity for a race with history as rich as the seafood chowder in McSwiggans cafe bar in town. In a bid to turn things around Galway have made Wednesday an evening meeting with the Plate due off at 7:20pm. There are negatives to that decision, like the working hours of the stable staff who already have a testing week, but if it can bring about a revival in crowds for a race first run in 1869, the juice will be worth the squeeze.

It is also a big Galway for Dermot Weld. It was by all means a season to forget for him last year and what might have hurt the most was a paltry two-winner return from the festival he holds so dear.

The King of Ballybrit didn’t get off the mark until the Saturday of last year’s festival when Aydoun won a maiden hurdle. What Weld wouldn’t give to win the that seven-furlong maiden on Monday evening. Remarkably, it would bring him up to a quarter century of wins in the race.

Sadly Pat Smullen, a genius around the ups and downs of Ballybrit, won’t be in the saddle this time but should he make the trip to watch at some stage next week, no one will be more welcomed.

A Weld Galway revival could be one of many stories on Monday evening, when if the sun shines, there is no other type of race meeting crowd collective contentedness anywhere in the world.

That feeling of anticipation towards the week ahead, in the serene, relaxed atmosphere of Ballybrit – absolute magic.

For the rest of the week on the track there is so much to look forward to. Tigris River will attempt to become the first horse to win back-to-back Galway Hurdles since Pinch Hitter in 1983. Rachael Blackmore comes into Galway leading the National Hunt jockeys’ championship. Ruby’s return. The potential for another superstar to emerge from the Galway Plate.

Off the track there is the usual entertainment and you won’t have to look hard. It’s just Galway, shure.

It’s brilliant.