Glorious, glorious Galway. It’s finally here. Seven days of entertaining madness set to rain down on Ballybrit, bee-lining for Eyre Square each evening.

There will be tips for Galway every day, available free here on theirishfield.ie all week so make sure to visit this space if you’re in need of extra help.

We begin with the Connacht Hotel Handicap (7:40), the traditional day one feature, a two-mile-one-furlong race for amateur riders. Willie Mullins’s influence on Galway has risen significantly in recent seasons, which makes perfect economical sense when you take into account the sensational prize money on offer now.

The Champion jumps trainer has taken the last two renewals of this contest, training the first two home last season, and three of the first four home the year before.

He has four in the race today and Mr Adjudicator looks by far his biggest chance. The four-year-old missed most of the winter but came back to win at Punchestown and Auteuil in the spring, progressing to a rating just short of a competitive Grade 1 horse. Off a flat rating of 81, he could be very well treated now. He did disappoint on his initial return to the flat when only third in a conditions race at Bellewstown earlier this month but it’s worth noting that he had to run there to meet the qualifying criteria for this race, so could well have been operating below peak level.

However he’s no bigger than 7/2 in what is a hugely competitive 20-runner field, and that just seems a little short. The other trainer to note in this race is Tony Martin. Successful in 2013 and 2014 with Edeymi and Quick Jack, Martin also trained placed horses in 2015 and 2016. He looks to have a fair chance of hitting the target again this year with the combined threat of Newcross and Mr Everest, two lightly-raced geldings likely to have been targeted at this contest. The latter won the November Handicap at Naas late last season and has been campaigned sparingly since, so will race off just a 5lb higher mark here. He looks sure to run well, however at a slightly bigger price, Newcross is preferred.

The Newtown Anner Stud-owned six-year-old only just failed to win a handicap over this sort of distance at Galway last year, going down by just three parts of a length to Rovetta, form which was boosted significantly on that mare’s next two starts. Since then he finished seventh in the aforementioned November Handicap but has looked a much better horse since coming back this season, finishing third to Venezia at Navan on his seasonal debut and building on that to win at Killarney on his latest start. That win at Killarney is good form - he beat Pearl Of The West, Hot Beat and the classy British raider Yabass, despite competing off unfavourable weight terms. A rise of 7lbs doesn’t seem as taxing as it could have been and given his lightly-raced profile, he has scope to improve again around a track he likes.

I’m going to throw another dart and that is with the mare I’ve already mentioned, Rovetta. She has uninspiring form figures but that was the case last season when she came into this meeting and she went on to win on the flat and over hurdles, the only horse to win twice at the meeting all week. The Jessica Harrington team are doing very little wrong at present and it’s likely Rovetta has been kept back for this meeting, given her excellent performances last year. Finny Maguire has been booked to ride and at 25/1, she looks worth playing.

Elsewhere on the card, there are two good handicaps worth getting stuck into. In the seven-furlong Claregalwayhotel.ie Handicap (7:05), Engles Rock looks overpriced at 7/1. Mark McNiff’s filly split Hermosa and Tarnawa when finishing second in a maiden over this course and distance last year and must have a good chance coming off the back of two good runs this year. She is drawn on eight which is a better fare than that of Fancy Footings (15) and Calling Time (11), two of the main players in the market.

Later on the card, Dermot Weld’s Switch Around has been heavily supported in the mile-and-a-half Eventus Handicap (8:10). She is stoutly bred, so a mark of 68 could well be within her reach but she hasn’t really progressed through her three maidens. Jim Bolger’s Halimi looks a much more solid proposition. He has some very good maiden form which includes a second to the now 97-rated Harpo Marx. He also finished fourth in a good renewal of the Ulster Derby before getting off the mark at the Curragh on his latest start, where he beat Aidan O’Brien’s Quote, the pair pulling five lengths clear. That was a sure sign of progress from the son of Teofilo and he probably should be favourite for a race like this but is instead available to back at 7/1.

Selections:

7:05 Engles Rock

7:40 Newcross, Rovetta

8:10 Halimi