I AM led to believe that many of the true delights of the seemingly endless Galway Festival are to be found off the racetrack, rather than on it, but with spectators excluded this year, the focus at Ballybrit by necessity was all on the action.

Pride of place went as usual to the Tote Galway Plate on Wednesday and the Guinness Galway Hurdle on Thursday, won by Early Doors (144 rating) and Aramon (162) respectively, with a reminder that jumps ratings are on a higher level than their flat counterparts.

That figure by Aramon is a belter and results from him running several seconds quicker than the other two-mile hurdle winners on the card under joint top-weight of 11st 10lb in a strongly-run affair.

It is good enough in theory to have seen him placed in the latest Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, though he was not quite the same force back in March and actually finished second in the County Hurdle that week.

Petit Mouchoir (157), who had been fifth to Epatante in the latest Champion, ran another fine race in third here, he and Aramon split by the well-treated Hearts Are Trumps (140).

Early Doors broke his maiden in the Plate and should do well this winter, even if 145 plus is likely to be needed to trouble the best novices.

The Plate runner-up Royal Rendezvous ran to a very healthy 150, while Cabaret Queen (141), The West’s Awake (145, including sectional upgrade) and Snugborough Benny (150) all finished close up in a strongly-run race.

The Storyteller was pulled-up under joint top-weight in the Plate but came out just two days later to claim a 155-rated win in the Arthur Guinness Chase.

Other Galway jumps winners worth noting include: The Very Man (136, listed novice hurdle), Court Maid (134, beginners’ chase), Slige Dala (120, bumper) and Great White Shark (141, Guinness Handicap Hurdle).

There was not a great deal of note in the flat races at Galway at the weekend but had been at Leopardstown on Friday afternoon, when Galileo Chrome was an impressive winner of a 10-furlong conditions race, beating Masteroffoxhounds by six lengths and notching up a 103 timefigure. A listed race should be within the son of Australia’s scope and possibly even a lesser group race.

Naas on Monday was better and included useful two-year-old wins by Giorgio Vasari (95) under a penalty in the opener and Miss Amulet (100) in the five-furlong listed race, the latter accounting for the penalised Frenetic (also 100 here, 102 previously).

It also saw another nail hammered into the coffin of the Derby form when the third in that race, Amhran Na Bhfiann, could manage only second in the 10-furlong maiden, although it later transpired he was lame and had a condylar fracture requiring two pins put in his fetlock joint. To be fair, he and the winner Zawara came clear in a time 2.99s quicker than the following apprentice handicap, but to be fairer still this form is at least a stone below what it usually takes to be placed in the blue riband of the turf.

Zawara is now rated 98, and looks useful, while Amhran Na Bhfiann remains on 105 but is deemed to have run a few pounds below that here.