Donn McClean reflects on another Galway Festival

Galway Festival reflections: Donn McClean column

By Donn McClean

Horse Racing

Wed August 06, 2025 · 5M ago

He's survived the week at the Galway Festival and here are Donn McClean's key takeaways.

1. Conjuring stories

Galway has this habit of conjuring stories, and Alan O’Sullivan’s victory on Filey Bay in the Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders’ Handicap on Monday was one of those.

The Connacht Hotel Handicap is the race that most Irish amateurs want to win, more than almost every other race. Alan O’Sullivan set out this year with the objective of proving himself to be good enough to just get a ride in the race. Winning it was just too outlandish to even countenance. Filey Bay can be tricky, but Alan O’Sullivan got on well with him when he rode him at home and, ultimately, with John Gleeson on Toll Stone and Harry Swan on The Shunter, the winner’s stable companions, Emmet Mullins and JP McManus entrusted him with the ride.

It’s very easy to point to a winning ride and say that it was a good one, but this one was. Patient from flagfall, he could have gone wide on the run down the hill but, if he had, he probably would have had to have gone very wide. Instead, he trusted his horse, trusted that, when the gaps appeared, he would have the energy to be able to move into them. They did and he did. It was an impressive piece of horsemanship from a young amateur rider on the up. The importance of the win was not lost, nor was the poignancy of it, as Alan looked to the skies on crossing the winning line with thoughts of his late brother Michael.

Alan O'Sullivan and Filey Bay win at Galway

2. Hurdle drama

There was a dramatic conclusion to the Guinness Galway Hurdle on Thursday, with Helvic Dream getting up to beat Ndaawi by a head but, actually, the drama was only beginning.

The drama continued when the two trainers involved, Gordon Elliott and Noel Meade, Meathmen both, friends off the track but rivals on it, stood side by side in the winner’s enclosure awaiting the result, and when it was announced that the placings had been reversed. You have to feel for Helvic Dream’s owners, and for Donagh Meyler and Noel Meade, who also sent out Jesse Evans to finish second in the Plate the previous day. Fundamentally, it is not ideal that nobody was certain how it would go, that you could argue the case for either outcome, either the result to stand or the placings to be reversed. Consequently, it wasn’t surprising that, after the placings were reversed, Noel Meade indicated that he intended to appeal.

Precedent provides conflicting messages. You can point to similar instances in which the result was allowed to stand, and you can point to similar instances in which placings were reversed. And this all under the same set of rules. That leaves the issue with the rules, and the interpretation thereof. Historically, the benefit of the doubt has tended to go to the horse who passes the post first. Leave the result as it is. The “he probably would have won anyway” argument. But it is correct that, if there is a doubt, the benefit of that doubt should go to the horse who suffered the interference. There are degrees of probability here, but it makes sense that the burden of proof should be on the perpetrator, not on the victim.

3. Top trainers

Gordon Elliott had a great Galway Festival. He had never won the Galway Hurdle before, so Ndaawi’s win under Jack Kennedy added the summer showpiece to his burgeoning CV. He had won the Plate the previous day too with Western Fold, a second Plate in three years for rider Danny Gilligan, a fifth Plate for Gordon Elliott, and that put the Cullentra trainer in an elite group of trainers who have won the Galway Plate and the Galway Hurdle in the same year. He had three other winners besides, King Of Kingsfield and Winning Smut and Zanahiyr, which brought his total to five for the week, more than any other trainer.

Strangely, he was not crowned Leading Trainer for the week. That accolade went to Willie Mullins again, for the 10th time. Willie Mullins had four winners for the week, one less than Elliott, but he had seven seconds and four thirds, as against no seconds for Elliott and six thirds. On the points-based system on which the Leading Trainer award at the Galway Festival is based, Willie Mullins came out on top.

The Leading Rider awards are based on numbers of winners, with the National Hunt award going to Jack Kennedy, who had four winners, and the Flat award going to Dylan Browne McMonagle, who had three, the same as Wayne Lordan, with Dylan Browne McMonagle coming out on top on countback.

Willie Mullins - top trainer at Galway again

4. Spread of winners

The spread of winners was once again a feature of Galway week. 53 races, and there were 33 different winning trainers and 40 different winning riders. There was only one day on which all seven or eight races were not won by different trainers. Joseph O’Brien had two winners on the Thursday but, Thursday aside, there were seven or eight different winning trainers on each day. No trainer had more than five winners for the week, and Peter Lawlor had two, from just two runners.

Same with jockeys. Dylan Browne McMonagle rode those two Joesph O’Brien-trained winners on Thursday, and Shane Foley won the seven-furlong maiden on Tuesday on Collecting Coin, and he dead-heated in the last race that day on Heliogabalus with Sam Coen on Castleheath but, outside of those two riders, no rider had more than one winner on any one day.

Attendances were good too. A total number 125,997 people went through the turnstiles over the course of the seven days, which was up over eight per cent on last year. The Tote figure was up too by 20 per cent, while total betting in the ring broke through the €7.5 million barrier, which was up over 13 per cent on last year.

5. Horses to note

There were many horses to note from the week, but here are three of them.

Aspurofthemoment did really well to win the two-an-a-quarter-mile handicap chase on Sunday, the Lord Hemphill Memorial Handicap Chase, under an inspired ride from Kevin Sexton. His jumping lacked fluency through the early part of the race, but he stayed in touch and, last of the main group on the run down the hill and over the last two fences, he stayed on strongly up the hill and won cosily in the end. Gavin Cromwell’s horse is only six. Two for three now over fences – and he made a bad mistake at Killarney in his only defeat - he stayed this trip well. A point-to-point winner and a winner over three miles over hurdles and winner of his beginners’ chase over two and a half, he can improve on this, and he can improve again for going back up in trip.

Contrary To Law ran well for a long way in the maiden that Constitution River won on Monday. Constitution River ran out an impressive winner, as his restrictive odds suggested he would, but Contrary To Law raced up with him on his outside for much of the race. He was just too keen, he was just always doing more than Gary Carroll wanted him to do, and he ultimately faded up the hill into fourth place. But Ray Cody’s horse was racing for just the second time in his life, he should benefit from the experience, and he could take a nice step forward when he learns to settle a little better.

Pink Oxalis did well to get as close as she got in the Rockshore Refreshingly Irish Handicap on Thursday. Drawn in stall 19, she was the only horse drawn higher than six to finish in the first six, but that doesn’t tell the full story. Held up early on, Dylan Browne McMonagle did well to get her in towards the inside early in the race. She had a ground-saving run, but the pace held up well, the winner Genuine Article made just about all the running and eight of the first nine home raced in mid-division or better from early. Pink Oxalis was the only hold-up horse who was able to get close. Stephen Thorne’s filly was faster than all her rivals through the final two furlongs. She had won three of her five races in the lead up to Galway, and she proved here that she was well able for this mark of 87. She will be of interest in another good handicap now off that type of mark.