Sporting Life
Action from the Galway Festival
Action from the Galway Festival

Timeform's Galway Course guide and key stats

By Timeform
Horse Racing
Mon July 31, 2023 · 2y ago

Timeform's guide to racing at Galway, featuring the key facts and figures ahead of the week-long Festival which starts on Monday.

Timeform’s Galway course guide

Galway is a right-handed track with a circuit of just over a mile and a quarter. There is a steep incline to the finish, but unless the ground is particularly testing the track is essentially sharp in character.

The finishing straight is short at little more than a furlong. A low draw at 7f and 1m 100yds is a slight advantage.

The chase course has seven fences to a circuit, with the final two fences very close together followed by a run-in of well over two furlongs.

The hurdle course is laid out inside the chase course, until the final hurdle situated in the short finishing straight, and is even sharper in character than the chase course.

Leading active Flat trainers at Galway

Sorted by strike rate since the start of 2018 (minimum 25 runners)

  • Willie Mullins 22.5% (16-71)
  • Aidan O’Brien 18.5% (19-103)
  • Matthew Smith 16.3% (8-49)
  • Dermot Weld 14.1% (17-121)
  • Jessica Harrington 12.8% (17-133)

Other points to consider

  • Joseph O’Brien has had the most Flat winners at Galway in the last five years, with 20 winners from 164 runners, one more than his father Aidan. But Dermot Weld is the trainer most associated with success at Galway, be it on the Flat or over jumps, and trained his 500th winner at the track at last September’s meeting.
  • In contrast to his runners over jumps, Willie Mullins’ runners on the Flat at Galway are much more profitable to follow, his 16 winners yielding a level-stakes return of 39.74. Ado McGuinness is the other trainer to return a notable level-stakes profit of 18.50 from his 8 winners.
  • Jessica Harrington was the most successful trainer on the Flat at last year’s Galway Festival with 5 winners.

Leading active jumps trainers at Galway

Sorted by strike rate since the start of 2018 (minimum 25 runners)

  • Emmet Mullins 29% (11-38)
  • Willie Mullins 19.1% (47-246)
  • Noel Meade 16.1% (14-87)
  • Tom Mullins 14.9% (7-47)
  • Gordon Elliott 13.5% (30-222)

Other points to consider

  • Willie Mullins (47) and Gordon Elliott (30) have trained easily the most winners in the last five years. Mullins won the Galway Plate for a second time in 2021 with Royal Rendezvous, while the latest of Elliott’s three winners in the race came in 2019 with Borice.
  • Tom Mullins has been the most profitable trainer to follow, with his 7 winners yielding a level-stakes profit of 16.37 ahead of nephew Emmet whose 11 winners gave a profit of 12.24.
  • Willie Mullins had the most jumps winners at last year’s Galway Festival with 6, with Emmet Mullins, Peter Fahey and Gordon Elliott all having 3.
Willie Mullins

Leading active Flat jockeys at Galway

Sorted by strike rate since the start of 2018 (minimum 25 runners)

  • Shane Foley 14.7% (23-156)
  • Gavin Ryan 14.5% (10-69)
  • Colin Keane 13.2% (20-152)
  • Billy Lee 10.9% (12-110)
  • Joey Sheridan 9.5% (6-63)

Other points to consider

  • Shane Foley (23) and Colin Keane (20) lead the way by number of winners. The other active jockey in double figures other than those in the above table is Chris Hayes with 12.
  • Shane Foley was the most successful Flat jockey at last year’s Galway Festival, riding 5 winners (all for Jessica Harrington), while Declan McDonogh rode 3 winners.
  • Gavin Ryan has been the most profitable jockey to follow with his 10 winners yielding a level-stake profit of 4.90.

Leading active jump jockeys at Galway

Sorted by strike rate since the start of 2018 (minimum 25 runners)

  • Mr Patrick Mullins 25.6% (11-43)
  • Paul Townend 19.8% (21-106)
  • Sean Flanagan 16.1% (15-93)
  • Conor Orr 15.8% (6-38)
  • Mr Jamie Codd 15.4% (4-26)

Other points to consider

  • Paul Townend (21) and Sean Flanagan (15) have ridden the most winners, with Mark Walsh and Darragh O’Keeffe (both 12) next among those jockeys still riding. Walsh won his second Galway Plate on Early Doors in 2020 and Townend also won the Festival’s highlight for the second time a year later on Royal Rendezvous.
  • The most profitable jockeys to follow among those with the best strike rate are Mr Patrick Mullins, whose 11 winners yielded a level-stake profit of 13.96 and Sean Flanagan whose 15 winners gave a profit of 13.34.
  • Patrick Mullins was the most successful jumps jockey at last year’s Galway Festival, winning on 3 of his 4 rides, all of them in bumpers for Willie Mullins.

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