Donn McClean looks ahead to what is always a special week as the Galway Festival kicks off.
What to expect at Galway?
Expect the expectation anyway. That sense of anticipation when you walk in early on Monday evening, when all 53 races are in front of you and nobody has trained or owned or ridden or backed a loser yet.
Willie Mullins will have some winners this week, you can be just about sure of that. The perennial champion has been leading trainer at the Galway Festival every year for each of the last 10 years. But he doesn't dominate Galway like he dominates Cheltenham, like he dominates Punchestown. At the 2024 Galway Festival, Joseph O’Brien had as many winners as Willie Mullins had. Five each. Ross O’Sullivan and Aidan O’Brien and Jessica Harrington and Gordon Elliott each had four. The spread of winners was impressive too. Thirty different trainers had winners at the Galway Festival in 2024. And 33 different trainers had at least one winner there last year.
Unusually, the leading trainer award at Galway is based on a points system. It’s a historical thing. Different to Cheltenham and Punchestown and Royal Ascot in that regard. Last year, Gordon Elliott actually had more winners than Willie Mullins. They both stood on four winners after the sixth day – yes, it’s a marathon – and, when the Gordon Elliott-trained Zanahiyr made all in the third race on the Sunday, the two-mile-six-and-a-half-furlong chase, and kicked on from the Willie Mullins-trained Blood Destiny in a race that was effectively a match between the two horses from a long way out, that was five-four. But Willie Mullins was still crowned leading trainer for the week. Because of the points system. So, be careful if you are betting in the leading trainer market. Know the parameters.
Mullins goes into the week in good form, he goes into most weeks in good form, with a treble at Wexford on Thursday from three runners, his last day with runners. And he could be off and running for the week with Witches Familiar in the opening contest today, the four-year-olds’ novices’ hurdle, a race that he has won twice in the last three years with Annie Power’s two sons, Davy Crockett and Mystical Power.
Gordon Elliott completed a rare double last year when he won the Plate and the Hurdle, the latter obviously in dramatic circumstances – it’s always dramatic when the stewards intervene – with Ndaawi promoted in front of Helvic Dream, trained by fellow Meathman Noel Meade, more about whom anon.
That was a first Galway Hurdle for Gordon Elliott last year, a race in which he had gone close on many occasions, and it looks like El Cairos is going to head up his Hurdle team this year. That’s fascinating. El Cairos could be seriously well handicapped on a mark of 143. Of course, he has to go and do it now, but he has raced just four times over hurdles. There is time for him still to realise his immense potential.
Gordon Elliott’s record in the Plate is remarkable. One of the most completive handicaps on the National Hunt racing calendar, and he has won five of the last 10 renewals. Nowwhatdoyouthink is a fascinating contender this year. The Mount Nelson gelding did really well for Ray Hackett last spring, he won a Grade 3 novices’ chase at Cork in April and he ran well for a long way in the Grade 1 Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival.
He raced keenly through the early stages of that race, but his jumping was fast and fluent, and he arrived there at the second last fence travelled better than any of his rivals. In the end, his early exertions probably told and he faded to finish third, but it was still a big run.
He goes to the Plate on Wednesday, having his first run for Gordon Elliott and with a rating of 142. That is more than fair. He finished among horses rated in the low 150s at Punchestown. He is only seven and he has raced just eight times over fences, so there could be more to come from him this season.
Joseph O’Brien is always a man to be noted, pretty much everywhere, but also at Galway. He had five winners at Galway two years ago and he had three winners there last year. A treble at Gowran Park on Saturday, including the 1-2 in the Listed Marble City Stakes with Nil Bua Gan Dua and Vauntingly, brought his strike rate for the last two weeks up to 29%, and that’s from over 60 runners. He is having a remarkable season, an Oaks and an Irish Oaks the highlights of his 2026 haul to date that includes a Chester Cup and a Stayers’ Hurdle and a Queen’s Vase and four more winners at Royal Ascot.
He is quintuple-handed in the Connacht Hotel Handicap on Monday, but the pick of the five might be Light Up The Dark. JP McManus’ mare proved her ability to operate at Galway last year when she finished a close-up third in a two-mile handicap there, and she stayed on well to take fourth place behind Tounsivator in a rated race at Fairyhouse three weeks ago. That was her first run back after a short break, and it should bring her forward nicely for Galway.
She is 8lb higher than she was when she won at Gowran in April, but she was impressive in winning that day, and she has the potential to be better than the mark of 89 off which she will race on Monday.
Noel Meade is always a man to be noted at Galway. Galway in 2026 is obviously different to Galway in 1981, when the three-year-old Pinch Hitter won the McDonogh Mile, now the Colm Quinn BMW Mile, and to Galway in 1982, when Punch Hitter won the McDonogh Mile again before going on to win the Galway Hurdle a couple of days later, and to Galway in 1983, when he won the Galway Hurdle again. But the Meathman rarely leaves Galway these days without at least one winner, and he goes into the week in good form, after Tatum’s win at Leopardstown on Thursday and Golden Temple’s win at Kilbeggan on Friday.
Madbadanddangerous is only 6lb higher than he was when he won the Ulster Derby last month, and he could still be well-handicapped on a mark of 89. Acanto and Xirivella will be interesting later in the week and, of course, there is Jesse Evans, the Galway perennial. Jack Singleton’s horse finished fourth in the Galway Hurdle in 2021 when he was a five-year-old. Then he finished second in the Hurdle in 2022 and again in 2023, and he finished second in the Plate last year.
He is on track for the Plate again. He is 10 now, but he is 3lb lower in the handicap then he was when he finished second last year, and he proved when he won impressively at Listowel last month that he retains all his enthusiasm for racing. And, well, horses for courses. And that factor is more important at Galway with all its idiosyncrasies than it is at most tracks.
Other trainers’ entries are worth a second look. Andrew Kinirons does well with a small team at Galway, and it looks like he is going to send a small team again this year, headed up by Western Model. The Westerner gelding was good in winning at Roscommon four weeks ago, and a 5lb hike was not overly harsh. He holds an entry in the two-mile-six-furlong handicap hurdle on Wednesday.
Jessica Harrington had four winners at Galway in 2024 and she had three winners last year, and she will go into the week on a high after Hotazhell got home by a nose in the Group 1 Grosser Dallmayr Preis in Munich on Sunday.
Andy Slattery had three winners at Galway last year, and his Loughrea will be an interesting contender in the Colm Quinn BMW Mile on Tuesday. He has raced just four times, but he did well to win at Leopardstown last time, after racing more keenly than ideal through the early stages of the race.
He is 5lb higher now, but he left the impression that he had more in hand than the bare winning margin, and he has the potential to progress again. And it is interesting that, immediately after his win at Leopardstown, his trainer mentioned the Galway Mile, a race that he won 10 years ago with Creggs Pipes.
Finally, Peter Lawlor ran two horses at Galway last year, one quarter of his entire string. He ran Summer Snow in the seven-furlong handicap on the Tuesday and he ran Murat in the concluding bumper on the Sunday, the traditional finale, the Fr Sean Breen Memorial Bumper, and they both won. Both horses are entered again, Summer Snow in the seven-furlong handicap again on Tuesday and Murat in the two-mile handicap on Wednesday.
Summer Snow doesn't go into the race this year with the momentum that she had last year, but she is 9lb lower now in the handicap than she was then, and she hasn’t run at Galway since. Murat goes to Galway on a high, he was good in winning a one-mile-seven-furlong contest at Leopardstown two weeks ago, a race from which the third horse Friary Road has since come out and run well.
And remember, horses for courses.
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