Ride of the day
John Gleeson, with a slipped saddle, excelled on Teofil in the bumper, but it’s hard to look beyond Colin Keane’s heroics on Madbadanddangerous in the three-year-old handicap over a mile and a half. The six-time champion jockey couldn’t have timed his challenge any better.
Performance of the day
Given the history that the seven-furlong juvenile maiden has for producing blacktype performers, Trean must be taken very seriously for Paddy Twomey. He was highly impressive from the front under Billy Lee and is entitled to try much stronger company next time. What a buy he was at €20,000 by Kevin Ross from Limekiln Stud.
In-running trading
carnage of the day
By typical Galway standards, there wasn’t immense heartbreak in this regard on day one. Too Bossy For Us (SP 11/1) hit even-money in the Connacht Hotel before fading to sixth, as did third-placed Motta Alta (13/2) in the seven-furlong handicap.
The horse to trade shortest and get beaten across the entire card didn’t end up being in the first three, however. Nermal (12/1) went as low as 3/10 before being reeled in to fourth in the mile-and-a-half handicap, while Sharkeyboy (7/1) hit close to 6/4 before Madbadanddangerous swooped down the outer.
In the bumper, Teofil (7/2) went a shade above 11/1 when faced with a serious challenge from Which Flannerys.
Market mover of the day
Having been available to back at 10/1 in the morning, not many would have expected Granite Bay to go off 7/2 favourite in the big one (finished seventh). In the same contest, a late move for last year’s winner Filey Bay went astray (beat one rival at 15/2, from an opening ring price of 14/1).
From the same stable, Emmet Mullins’ Vantage Code was an eye-catching third to Madbadanddangerous. He returned the 100/30 favourite, having been 8/1 in the morning. There were a couple of movers in the bumper too: Andy Slattery’s Lanespark (11th) was backed from 16/1 down to 9/2 and Ciaran Murphy’s fourth-placed Hill Silver was available at 125/1 in the afternoon and touched 18/1 (eased to 33/1 at the off).
It was a real shame for all involved when we lost Munsif at the second last in our opening novice hurdle. There appeared to be confidence behind him heading into this too, backed into an SP of 3/1 (from a morning price of 11/1) for Charles Byrnes.
Eye-catcher of the day
While she wouldn’t have beaten the 16lb ‘well-in’ winner, Andy Slattery’s Expert Danceremerges from her second behind Dancing Saxon with her reputation enhanced. After suffering interference at a key stage and having to circle the field out wide, she did extremely well to fare best of the rest and can get her head in front again before long.
Stat of the day
Never underestimate the power of positivity. Paul Townend led over the first hurdle on Witches Familiar, Conor Smithers and Timurshah were first to rise over the opening obstacle in our following handicap hurdle, Billy Lee made all on Trean and Comfort Zone was the quickest to 20mph (from stall 20) in the feature event. Likewise, Teofil was always right on the lead in the bumper.
It isn’t always essential to lead at Ballybrit, but it does remove a lot of the need for luck in running and those who raced forward were seen to good effect on Monday.
Quote of the day
“It’s a bit like Mayo in the football, it’s not simple to win it!” - Derek O’Connor on the challenge of landing the Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders’ Handicap.