No stopping O’Sullivan

After the first race on the fifth day of the Ballybrit bonanza, Ireland’s champion trainers Willie Mullins and Aidan O’Brien had registered two wins apiece at the meeting. From just four runners, Ross O’Sullivan was on four winners.

It has been a sensational spell for the capable Co Kildare trainer and one can only hope that advertising his talents on a prominent stage this week will help to continue the progression of his upwardly-mobile operation.

His results at Ballybrit have only been the continuation of an already stellar few months, though. According to Horse Racing Ireland’s online records, he has notched 22 winners in Ireland across the last four months – nearly 17% of the entire amount of domestic winners he has sent out since his first in 2012. Long may it last.

Joseph team on fire

At the same stage, nobody has registered more winners at Ballybrit this week than Joseph O’Brien, though.

After a quiet spell by his own ridiculously high standards, he now has his string in outstanding form and has already made a massive impact at the meeting.

In the space of 20 days, the Owning Hill handler notched a sizzling 17 winners, including a four-timer across the opening four cards at Galway. Feature-race successes for Mexicali Rose (Colm Quinn BMW Mile) and Nurburgring (Guinness Galway Hurdle) really hammered home the fact the yard is in a rich vein of form.

Visitors flying high

Given they were not travelling over for huge pots by any means (€21,000 to the winner of one race and €10,200 for the other), it was excellent to see British-based trainers Richard Fahey and Adrian Keatley return to Ireland on a winning note.

Had 10-length winner Gale Mahler not lined up in the Colm Quinn BMW Novice Hurdle on Tuesday, the race would have been an extremely lukewarm spectacle, while the presence of Reidh really spiced up a big-field flat handicap on the same card.

The more that people outside the Irish racing bubble get exposed to the Ballybrit bug, the better it will surely be for encouraging others to come back in future.

Tactical races

As Will Ferrell’s character Ricky Bobby famously said in the film Talladega Nights: “If you ain’t first, you’re last.”

It may not have been quite that extreme when it came to tactics in the first four days’ flat races at Galway, but there were many occasions where it proved extremely difficult to land a blow from back in the field – especially over shorter distances.

Rock Of Cashel made all in the two-year-old maiden on Monday, and Bubbling and Lucky Out were close to the pace when winning other maidens, but some of the more extreme examples of this came on Thursday, when Grey Leader and Genuine Article raced first and second throughout in a mile handicap and never came back to the field.

The Corrib Fillies Stakes on that card was similarly tactical, with Raknah making all and proving unable to be pegged back. Lady Christa nearly made all later in the afternoon, finding only Hidden Land too strong (tracked leader closely), while even over jumps, Nurburgring, Donnie Devito and Ashdale Bob all benefited from positive positions on day four.

Below-par Corrib

Hats off to connections of the first three home in the Listed Arthur Guinness Irish EBF Corrib Fillies Stakes as it was an excellent opportunity for blacktype they took full advantage of.

Gutsy winner Raknah was only rated 82 heading into the race, though, and was beaten in a handicap off that mark at Gowran the previous weekend. The third-placed Ojw Legacy held a mark of just 86 and the Willie McCreery-trained pair, All Lies Ahead (fourth) and Concluding Call (fifth), weren’t all that far away with ratings of 87 and 76.

Of course, the race was impacted by market leader One Look disappointing, and the fatal injury to Flight Of Fancy, but it really was a poor turnout for a blacktype contest.

Big-race favourites

If you were a follower of favourites in the marquee races at Galway, the end of this week probably can’t come quick enough.

A 50/1 boil-over in the Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders Handicap on Monday with Sirius was a sign of things to come for those targeting the top of the market, with 4/1 favourite Lot Of Joy only ninth there.

Plume Noire went off the 9/2 favourite for the Colm Quinn BMW Mile a day later and only beat two home in 16th, Perceval Legallois went off 7/2 for the Tote Galway Plate and never really threatened at the business end in eighth, while Daddy Long Legs (5/1) trailed the Guinness Galway Hurdle field in 19th.

On the whole, Tuesday was more kind to punters with four winning market leaders, but the rest of the first four days were an uphill struggle for favourite backers. No favourite won on Wednesday, and only one won on Monday and Thursday from seven and eight-race cards respectively.

Perhaps the quieter-than-usual form of Willie Mullins to start the week (two winners from 35 runners across the first four days) may have been a knock for punters too.

Galway Hurdle start

A slice of luck is always needed when trying to find the winner of the Galway Hurdle, but getting away from the start with your chances still intact even required a bit of good fortune this year.

It was a difficult situation for the starter, and the riders, once Kings Hill got on his toes before the flag was raised and it all resulted in some runners getting a flyer and others getting knocked back. Nurburgring was undoubtedly a clear-cut winner, but his smooth trip around was a huge help in the success.

Last year we had an unsatisfactory beginning to the Plate, yet the runners managed to get away at the first attempt this time around. When multiple starts are required, it tends to get messier.

Petrol Head saga

There’s rarely a week at the Galway Festival that some drama doesn’t pop up, and we had more than our share when Petrol Head was withdrawn from the Galway Hurdle on Thursday by the directors of the IHRB after a positive sample from his last win at Bellewstown.

The timing was a little bizarre. The IHRB noted that at 11am on Thursday they received confirmation from LGC Laboratories of the presence of a prohibited substance in the sample taken at Bellewstown, mere hours before the day-four feature.

While connections of Petrol Head are upset by the situation, if he had won the €270,000 prize, it would have been quite the look for the sport if details of a failed drug test for his previous run hadn’t come to light beforehand. Never a dull moment out west.

Fatalities

It was a particularly tough week on the equine fatality front at Ballybrit. While there is never a good time or place for accidents to happen, for five fatalities to arrive across the first four days of such a big week was especially unfortunate for everyone involved, and clearly upsetting for the connections.

There are already full card inspections and trot-ups for all horses before racing on each day at Galway and, for the first time this year, all trainers with entries in the Plate and Hurdle were required to submit medication records for their horses.

The IHRB will review whether there is any link between the incidents.