Galway Festival Day Four – Thursday 28th July

Day Four Preview – 2022 Galway Festival – Andrew Blair White

This week is proving to everyone how hard it can be to find winners at Galway with plenty of hot pots turned over and plenty of interesting results coming out of the woodwork. Despite not managing to grasp a winner, it was a winning day for myself after big runs from Tullypole Annie, El Barra and Ronald Pump, and if I can manage to make a profit from accruing some place money, that’s what it will have to be. Onto Day Four, and hopefully it should be a good one. 

The first race on the card is the 2.10 race and this 2m6f beginners chase looks like an open contest, with three or four in with genuine chances. I am going to be forgiving in siding with Chinx Of Light, who could well be the horse open to the most improvement, if his jumping has not been scarred from his fall last time out. He was progressive over hurdles up until that stage, and he was a very unlucky loser on chase debut at Kilbeggan, so he should be set to run well here. I think this is a horse who could actually reach a high enough ceiling over fences, so perhaps this could be taken on the way to some decent honors throughout the remainder of the campaign. At a price of 9/4 with Bet365, he should be backed. 

The 2.45 race is the Graded Novice Chase over 2m2f and the top three in the betting in this race are all well above average sorts and could be hard to split. Due to his decent form at the course, and his form being well advertised recently, the edge for me goes to Sole Pretender, for the shrewd yard of Norman Lee. This horse has been a flag bearer for them and he has represented them well in the Galway Hurdle the last two seasons. His chase debut was a super impressive performance and although he was no more than workmanlike when beating Ferdia, he still got the job done. He’s 5/2 with Bet365, and that is more than enough to tempt me in. Galway Festival Day Three – Wednesday 27th July

The 5.05 race is the feature on the card and the 2m Galway Hurdle is the typical hard race it has always been, but I have landed on two that should be able to equip themselves very well. First of all is My Mate Mozzie, who runs here for the Gavin Cromwell team, and must have a great chance based on some of his novice hurdle form, and the fact that he has had two prep runs on the flat to prepare for this race. He did not win either of those starts, but he shaped with enough promise to suggest that there may be a bigger target in the offing, and this looks the perfect chance to make use of a decent handicap mark. He ran a good, honest race in the County Hurdle in his only other start in a handicap and is sure to go well here. At a price of 9/1 with William Hill, who are offering 7 places, he should be backed each way. 

The other horse that has to be afforded the greatest deal of respect is Jesse Evans, with last year’s fourth also coming into this race after an eye-catching run on the flat. He was a shade disappointing in some big field handicap hurdles at the back end of last season, but the way he ran here last year can’t be overlooked. Bryan Cooper looks like he will be taking plenty of rides for this stable this season, and the way this horse is ridden, may well suit the style that Cooper can approach these races with. He looks attractively weighted based on his best form and he may well have been targeted for a repeat bid at this race for sometime now. At a price of 9/1, I will be backing him each way well.