FIVE days of the Galway Festival have come and passed.

There’s been no shortage of drama, no shortage of impressive winners and definitely no shortage in the flow of beer. Monday kicked off with the miserable sight of a rainy day but things only got better from there.

There was a hugely impressive performance from the Willie Mullins-trained Bachasson to open proceedings. The mother and daughter combination of Jessie and Kate Harrington took the feature event with the tough and versatile Modem. Unfortunately Modem just missed out on getting a run in the Galway Hurdle, but there’s always next year.

Tuesday’s feature race, the Topaz Mile, was taken in very fine style by Hint Of A Tint. Owned by Sue-Ann Foley and ridden by Wayne Lordan, she was continuing a brilliant year for trainer David Wachman.

Wednesday’s feature was thetote.com Galway Plate and was won by Shanahan’s Turn. He was a very promising novice but slightly lost his way last season. As a result, he perhaps left himself well handicapped and made the very most of it here. He jumped with extreme fluency throughout and looked to have the race sewn up after putting daylight between himself and the field and winging three and four out.

His young jockey Jonathan Burke had a previous association with the Galway Plate through his father’s Sir Frederick who took the race seven years ago. Looking at a photo of Master Burke from 2007, you would have said he was more likely to become a prop forward than a successful jockey. He defied the odds, however, and is proving himself to be one of the best jockeys in the country. He has a wise head on young shoulders and he has a big future (as long as he stays off the pies).

Thursday’s Guiness Galway Hurdle is in danger of renamed The Tony Martin Beneficiary Hurdle. Tony’s Quick Jack ran out a comfortable winner of the €300,000 race when his stablemate Thomas Edison (last year’s winner) came a cropper at the last when looking to hold every chance. Yet another of Tony’s charges, Ted Veale, finished third.

Tony has plotted a campaign with Quick Jack with all the precision of a sniper. Since winning the amateur handicap here last year, Quick Jack has taken aim at the Cesarewitch (finished second), BoyleSports Hurdle (third), County Hurdle (third) and Chester Cup (second).

He got the headshot this time when it mattered most, landing the most valuable handicap of the year.

The winner was beautifully ridden by Denis O’Regan. He had Quick Jack switched off from the word go in the perfect position and never gave away an inch the whole way round. In my opinion it was irrelevant whether Thomas Edison stood up or not because Quick Jack hadn’t come out of third gear at that stage. It’ll be interesting to see what Tony has in mind for him next.

Aside from the feature races, there were plenty of other talking points. For me, the most impressive display of the week had to be Michael O’Callaghan’s Bushranger filly Now Or Never. She had made a very pleasing debut in Fairyhouse and had no trouble going one better to easily account for a well touted field of individuals. Galway has thrown up many subsequent top level performers in the past and it should be no different with this one.

For local man Leigh Roche, getting on the scoresheet twice will mean more to him than an All-Ireland medal. Saying that, he is from Galway so he probably didn’t have any expectations in getting one of those anyway.

At the time of writing Dermot Weld, surprisingly, is under heavy pressure in trying to retain his crown of leading trainer. He’s had his fair share of seconds so far this week and will be hoping the weekend will be more fruitful.

I’m sure there are plenty of punters hoping for the same.

As for me, I’m off to find out what all the talk about the Galway nightlife is really about.