RECORDS of organised race meetings in Co Galway go back to the mid-13th century when what were known as horse matches were run under King’s Plate Articles.

In 1864, there was a five-day race meeting at Knockbarron near Loughrea; and exactly 100 years later a Western Plate was confined to “gentlemen riders qualified for National Hunt Races at Punchestown or members of the County Galway Hunt”.