IF you had asked me prior to Galway which of the feature races, the Plate or the Hurdle, would be stronger the answer seemed clear: the Plate with its five chasers rated 155 or higher whereas the Hurdle top weight was running off just 146.

They don’t run these races in simulations however, and events on the track made a reappraisal necessary.

Galway Hurdles can be steadily run but that was not the case this year as Cash Back took them along early only for Mighty Tom to grab the baton after the fourth hurdle, tanking his way to the lead.

How much of that was horse and how much rider is hard to know as Mighty Tom was pulling but Denis O’Regan might well have done the right thing rather than fight him for the duration.

In the lead, Mighty Tom was inclined to go left but did well to last as long as he did, only dropping away into sixth after the last, and seems a much-improved sort for the switch to Cian Collins, allowing that he is not the easiest ride.

That strong pace suited Zarak The Brave and Paul Townend deserves credit for how he held in his main rivals on the final bend though both Jesse Evans and My Mate Mozzie were out in time to win. Zarak The Brave showed a particularly good attitude on the run-in to hold them off and he was doing this against hardened handicappers.

Poor record

The poor overall record of four-year-olds in this race has been well-documented – they are 2/45 since 1997 – and that Zarak The Brave could overcome the pattern is a positive while he was also racing off the joint-highest rating of any of that cohort, 145, though weight-for-age brought it back a touch.

He likely would not have been in this race but for a mid-season bout of colic as he would have been running in all the Grade 1 juvenile hurdles and Townend did point out afterwards that he had good reason for picking him over Lossiemouth at Fairyhouse before he ran an excellent race off a break at Punchestown.

My default position with juvenile hurdlers stepping into open company the following winter is to oppose them, as often they struggle, but that view might need some revision with this crop considering this result.

Of those down the field, Party Central, who has been running well on the flat, shaped better than her 11th place finish as she was travelling well when making a bad mistake two out while the most interesting postscript to the race came the following evening when the pulled-up Brazil won the Guinness Handicap.

When asked to explain the improvement, Padraig Roche replied that ‘it’s Galway’, a sentiment many punters could relate to!

TO call the Galway Plate a messy race would be kind; it is a contest that can sometimes take a few tries to get them away but this year’s running was six minutes behind time and marred by numerous false starts.

A few of those that prefer to be handy looked disadvantaged by the start, notably Lifetime Ambition and Final Orders, and the first two over the first fence were still there at the finish line.

To a degree, that was that, though Ash Tree Meadow did have to overcome repeated hassle from a loose horse as he improved on Gordon Elliott’s already stellar record in this race; Galway may not be a major target meeting for him overall, but the Plate is an exception.

The runner-up Authorized Art was helped by the application of cheekpieces and the sound surface; since joining Willie Mullins, his form figures with good in the going description read:1531211162 while he is yet to record a win in nine starts on slower.

Neither Hewick nor Kilcruit had any major excuses as both were ridden close to the pace though Hollow Games, who apparently had a breathing operation prior to this run, shaped well in third, doing much the best of those that were held up.

This was his first start beyond the minimum trip over fences, which is surprising as he looked a stayer in his novice hurdles, and might well pick up one of these valuable handicap chases that his trainer excels in.

Further down the field, I would be forgiving of Enniskerry in seventh. He travelled powerfully to the last and just didn’t seem to stay, perhaps not the greatest surprise given the pace he showed on the flat in his previous start at Leopardstown and his trainer’s comments after that win.

That Leoparstown form worked out well at Galway, given the six-length runner-up Mon Coeur is now rated 90, and Barry Connell said afterwards that the Plate was ‘too far [and] he is a two-miler over fences.’ The lure of the big prize proved too much but he will be interesting coming back down in trip.

AS he does at these meetings, Willie Mullins was top trainer with 10 winners and interestingly all of them came under National Hunt rules, his 15 flat runners yielding just three places.

Peter Fahey finished second in the trainers’ prize with four winners, the second time in two years he has managed such a total, three of his winners coming in competitive handicaps of 16 or more runners.

A handful of trainers have managed to have excellent ‘Galways’ on a once-off basis, which is an achievement, but to do it back-to-back years is particularly notable.

His owners, notably The Big Doyen crew, seemed to be having a fine time in the celebrations afterwards judged on social media clips and Fahey might well have a few calls to train new horses for the meeting next year, such is the draw of ‘The Races.’

Galway has never been a target for Paddy Twomey before this year, with just nine runners at Ballybrit prior to 2023, but he mentioned in the run-up to the meeting that he would have a few for the week which unsurprisingly turned out to be an understatement.

His four runners produced two winners and a runner-up in maidens, all of them first-time-out, as his horses overcame their lack of experience to be competitive. We are told that experience matters in maidens at Galway and that truism is accurate. Since 2011, two- and three-year-old debutantes are 10/231 in flat maidens, and you would have made a level stakes loss of 178 points backing them all.

Prior to Twomey’s two winners, the eight previous victors invariably turned out to be high-class; seven of them reached an official rating of at least 100 at their peak, the exception rating 90, and included the likes of Brooch, Almela, Lancaster House and Tahiyra.

Unlikely

First-time-out winners for Twomey are often worth following as a rule and I was taken with the win of Purple Lily whose success looked unlikely after being slow from the stalls and racing green early.

Billy Lee managed to slot her into a better position after a couple of furlongs and the way she made up her ground in the straight after being pulled wide, getting only two small cracks of the whip, was visually impressive and backed up by the clock.

Her closing sectionals were much the best on the card, a fair achievement for a juvenile debutante, and while she has no big entries coming up, Twomey mentioned the Ingabelle for her and that is a race he has history in.