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Weld Looks for the Big Prizes at 2011 Galway Races
21/07/11

The ever popular Galway Races will get underway on 25th July and will last for seven days with the final race going off on Sunday July 31st.

As always, the organisers are expecting huge crowds even higher than the 150,000 that turned up last year who will enjoy top quality racing from both the Flat Racing and National Hunt codes.

Each day has its feature race but the two stand out races each year are always the Galway Plate which is run on Wednesday and the Galway Hurdle, which is run on Ladies Day, Thursday. The feature races on the other days are:

Monday 25th July – Galway City Handicap

Tuesday 26th July – Topaz Mile EBF Handicap

Friday 29th July – Guinness Handicap

Saturday 30th July – Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle

Sunday 311st July – Connacht Tribune Handicap

Whilst Galway is notoriously difficult for punters trying to find a few winners amongst the 51 races, the trainer to follow at the meeting is always Dermot Weld who has a formidable record at the West Coast track and once again has a raft of entries for both the Flat and NH races at next week's meeting. Weld had 11 winners last year and will be looking to go at least one better this time around and has already hinted that he has his eyes firmly set on winning one of the big two races this year as well, neither of which he won 12 months ago.

Finger On The Pulse (right)
© racing-images.co.uk

The 2010 Galway Plate was won by the Tom Taafe trained Finger On The Pulse who was ridden superbly by AP McCoy. The same partnership could be in the mix again this year, trying to emulate the feat of the Dermot Weld trained, Ansar who won the race back-to-back in 2004 and 2005.

The early favourite however is the Pat Flynn trained Bahrain Storm who finished second behind Overturn a year ago in the Galway Hurdle and has taken to chasing extremely well, winning two from four starts so far, including the July Open at Killarney on 11th July. He has been laid out for the race so must be respected.

The leading Dermot Weld charge is Majestic Concorde, who finished third last year after going off as the 3/1 favourite. He won the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown at Christmas before unseating his rider in the Aintree Grand National back in April and it would be no surprise to see a return to winning ways in this race.

Captain Cee Bee
© racing-images.co.uk

One of the class horses in the field will be Captain Cee Bee but he will not be treated too kindly by the handicapper after being placed in both Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March and the Boylesports Champion Chase at Punchestown in May and poses a major threat to all rivals.

The biggest threat from the UK would appear to come from the David Pipe trained Qulinton who was the very impressive winner of the Listed Summer Plate the other day at Market Rasen.

In the Galway Hurdle, the Edward O’Grady trained, The Real Article, has reportedly been heavily backed following the announcement that he will be running off his old rating of 127 and not his new mark of 145 which he was given following his second place behind Captain Cee Bee at Tipperary. This gives him 18Ib in hand and with it a great chance of victory and is now as short as 7/2 to win having been available at 10/1 earlier in the week.

The Donald McCain trained Overturn will be looking to make it back-to-back wins in the race but he will face a tougher task off top weight. Dermot Weld's Hidden Universe won't have that problem after he was last seen finishing a nine length second behind Shot From The Hip in the Grade One, Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown in May but remains highly regarded by the stable, won a Grade One Bumper and is clearly open to further improvement and cannot be discounted should the O'Grady gamble fail to be landed.