Fran Berry has five each-way tips to consider for day one of the Galway Festival, including two in the feature handicap on the card.
Loads to get stuck into on day one at Galway with eight Flat races to kick things off.
The feature Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap is about as competitive as they come all week with loads of familiar faces from the jumps scene including Grade One hurdle winner Sharjah.
He's very short in the betting and I'm going to oppose him with a couple of each-way fancies.
TAKARENGO catches the eye near the bottom of the weights and will love the return to two miles. The main positive, though, is the rain we've been having as he enjoys getting his toe in.
He won twice last year on heavy and then soft to heavy ground and the win at Leopardstown reads well.
He's made a pleasing return to the Flat since the resumption and travelled wide throughout at the Curragh last time but kept going to finish fifth. Stall 13 isn't ideal but we'll take our chance with Paddy Power going six places on the race. Lisa O'Neill is a good booking here.
I can't resist A WAVE OF THE SEA from stall one too. He ran well when fourth in an extremely good handicap here last summer and subsequently made a big impact over hurdles, winning at Grade One at the Dublin Racing Festival. He was lucky there but he's a quality horse on his day and goes back on the Flat now off a mark of 82 with a top amateur on his back.
Earlier on the card, LUST is worth backing each-way in the Claregalwayhotel.ie Irish EBF Maiden. I think he's better than what we saw from him at Navan. He faded a bit up the hill but it wasn't a bad run and the second has franked the form last week.
It's a warm little race as ever but Lust has shown more than enough and I'd be surprised if he wasn't up to winning very soon.
I like QAABIL in division two of the Galmont.com & Galwaybayhotel.com Handicap. He's well-bred and ran in France initially before joining William Haggas. He shaped quite well on his last start when staying on well from a wide draw.
First-time cheekpieces and a better draw here, combined with softer ground which I think will really suit, make him a big player in this company.
To round things off I'm having a small each-way bet on outsider of the field SIMPLY TRUE in the Eventus Handicap.
Trained by the in-form Andrew Oliver, he showed all is best form in bad-ground nurseries last season and has shaped extremely well in two runs to date this term despite the ground being against him. He'll love conditions here and I just think he's definitely being overlooked in the market.
Posted at 1110 BST on 27/07/20
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