Strangles: Today’s front page carries a photo of Wedding Bouquet, a leading fancy for tomorrow’s Heinz 57 Phoenix Stakes. There is also a short news piece with statistics from the Galway Festival.

Valentine Lamb writes about equine health. In America, a case of strangles has been diagnosed at Saratoga to a horse who has already been sold for export to France. By international agreement, horses stabled in a unit where there is a strangles outbreak are put on a 90-day long “hold”.

Meanwhile in England, there has been an outbreak of equine flu, the first case since 1981. While the outbreak is not with thoroughbreds, Lamb writes that a notice has appeared in the Irish Racing Calendar for the last three weeks stating the importance of horses being inoculated.

Galway round-up: Racing reports begin with the conclusion of the annual Galway Festival. On Friday evening the going is good. Stephen Craine is the star turn with a treble, riding to victory Moldavia, Sandhurst Goddess, and also winning the feature race, the Musgrave Handicap, on Fish Merchant at 100/30.

The Musgrave Handicap is also significant because of the betting figures. With eight runners, the ring handles £337,000, a new record for a single race.

There are seven races, but eight winners! The concluding mile and six race is a dead-heat between Angebos (Christy Roche) and Rathcoffey Duke (Pat Shanahan).

This evening sees a record attendance for the Friday evening fixture and the Tote aggregate is £321,773, almost £70,000 higher than last year. The bookies ring handles a new record total of £1.53 million.

The Galway meeting concludes on Saturday afternoon, and again the going is officially good. The feature race today is the Oranmore Dairies Handicap Hurdle. This is won by Sweet Downs, who is having his third run of the week, though the first over jumps. Ridden by Mr Martin McNulty and trained by Pat Lally, Sweet Downs is a 12/1 winner.

Another amateur rider to beat the pros today is Mr Aidan O’Brien on board Bedford Ranger, who just gets up at the finish line to win the opening maiden hurdle. The gelding is trained by Jim Bolger.

Classmate VI defies 12 st 7lb to win the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase in the hands of Tony O’Brien; Stephen Craine has another winner when Simply Terrific takes the seven-furlong nursery.

The final Galway statistics show total turnover for the week of £7.1 million with the bookies, and, for the first time, over £2 million on the Tote.

A postscript to the festival appears in Claire Barry’s Inside Track column. She writes about the introduction this year of flyaway tapes, which currently start 90% of National Hunt races in Britain. They are deemed a success. Clerk of the Course Joe Collins says: “As a result of using them there wasn’t a single false start.”

Bank holiday: It’s August bank holiday Monday, so racing is at Leopardstown and the going is good to firm. It’s a good day for Jim Bolger who has two winners at Leopardstown and three at Gowran Park.

Biggest prize today is the Joe McGrath EBF Handicap, worth £13,500, over six furlongs, which is won by the 20/1 rank outsider Tinco Paleno, ridden by John Egan for the Drew McMillan stable.

There are two listed races on the card. The EBF Brownstown Stud Stakes goes across the water to the Peter Walwyn stable, as Awayed wins by two lengths in the hands of Declan Gillespie.

Later, the EBF Rochestown Stakes is taken by Nordic Surprise, ridden by Christy Roche and trained by Jim Bolger. The 8/1 shot completes a double for Coolcullen, which is started when Latin Quarter and Mr Aidan O’Brien win the mile and six amateur riders’ handicap. However, Latin Quarter needs some help from the stewards. In And Out passes the post first by a head but after an enquiry, the placings are reversed.

Reporter Dave Baker gets to see the head on film. It shows that In And Out’s rider, Mr Martin McNulty, strikes Latin Quarter across the head with his whip twice and the stewards decide that it affects Latin Quarter’s chances, but is accidental. Baker agrees with the decision.

Bolger winners: There is also racing at Gowran Park on August bank holiday Monday, where the going is good. Jim Bolger goes to Leopardstown but his daughter Una goes to Gowran Park and they have three winners.

The feature race is the Toyota Ireland 3-Y-O Race over a mile and a quarter, worth £8,280. There are three runners, the day’s smallest field. But there is an exciting finish, and Caerless Writing and Willie Supple hold off Major Inquiry by a short head. The winner is the outsider of three at 11/4.

The other Coolcullen winners are Nordican and Willie Supple in the opening fillies’ maiden and Quercus wins the bumper, a first winner for Mr Pat O’Donovan.

Another rider winning for the very first time is Miss Ann Marshall, who rides Kamsala to win the Thomastown Garage Ladies Race.

The Mount Juliet EBF Fillies Handicap is won by the14/1 outsider Orion Dream, ridden by apprentice Jock Hunter. But after the race, he is interviewed by the stewards and fined £100 for changing his boots after weighing out. Reporter Cliff Noone is not impressed: “All I can say is that the Turf Club must need money badly if they to harrass young apprentices.”

Immediately below Cliff Noone’s report, the paper reprints the official enquiry notice, accompanied by a Bob Fannin cartoon. This depicts a boot shop marked “Turf Club sale” and a jockey hands £100 to a bowler-hatted steward.

Michael Kinane and Dermot Weld make one racegoer very happy. The win by Michnock in the sixth race means that there is one Jackpot winner, who goes home with £3,027.

Phoenix Park: It’s Dublin Horse Show week, so there is racing at the Phoenix Park on Wednesday evening, and the going is good. Dave Baker writes that “as has now become almost the norm”, the feature race goes to a horse trained in England. Just Three wins the EBF Hardwicke Cup (Listed). He is trained by Matt McCormack and ridden by John Reid.

Dermot Weld and Michael Kinane have a double with Insider’s View and Caerforme and the Jim Bolger and Christy Roche bandwagon keeps rolling on as Nordican, a winner at Gowran Park on Monday, wins again this evening.

Baker’s report concludes: “The ever increasing problems of indiscriminate parking, or more accurately the abandoning of cars, on the roads around this track is now a serious hazard for motorists and action needs to be taken before lives are.”

News: A short filler news piece on page 19 brings news that yesterday (Friday), 35 bookies shops in Cork city have switched on to live racing on television from Satellite Information Services. This brings the total number of shops with the service to 356, spread over Dublin, Limerick, Clare, a few in Co Kildare, and one in Co Galway. Next on the list is the rest of Co Cork, Co Kildare and Donegal. In Northern Ireland, all shops (except two) have live pictures.

Britain: Ian Carnaby writes about Colin Brown. The now-retired jump jockey owns two pubs in the Lambourn area, but they are not filled with photos of Desert Orchid: “I thought that would be a bit corny, to tell the truth.” Brown tells Carnaby that he has no regrets about retiring, and still rides out. But Carnaby concludes that “Colin Brown isn’t a man to sit down and write an autobiography’’.

France: Desmond Stoneham reports from the summer season at Deauville. Among the winners are Machiavellian, a son of Mr Prospector, owned by Stavros Niarchos. This colt wins the Prix Yacowlef. The Prix d’Argentan is won by Snow Bowl, trained by Patrick Biancone. André Fabre wins the Group 2 Prix Kergolay with Top Sunrise.

RDS: Yesterday, Friday, Britain win the Aga Khan Cup. France are second, Germany third, and Ireland fourth. Britain look like favourites for another victory in next week’s European Show Jumping Championships in Rotterdam, an event at which Ireland will not have a team.

One Irish winner during the week is Captain John Ledingham, who rides Kilcoltrim to win the Puissance for the fourth time but this is the first time that they win it outright, with a score of seven foot one inch. Last weekend, Nick Skelton and Burmah Apollo won the Hickstead Grand Prix.