Search Results for 'Willie Mullins'

With less than a week to go to the start of the Galway races, now is an opportune time to look at the history of the week’s two major races, to help us identify horses who fit the profile of likely winners.

Willie Mullins was crowned leading trainer at the 2023 Cheltenham festival. It was his tenth time to take the award. Willie has trained 94 winners at the festival to date, and looks very likely to bring his total to over a century of winners next week. With 65 winners in the last decade, the Mullins domination shows no sign of abating, and it will be the shock of the season if he is not crowned leading trainer at next week’s festival. At a recent Cheltenham preview night, his stable jockey, Paul Townend, was asked for his “charity” bet of the week. His response gave a clear indication of the horses he views as banker material; not content with giving a single answer to the question, Paul suggested a treble comprising Lossiemouth, El Fabiolo and Galopin Des Champs. All three look bomb proof, but, as every punter knows, one of the three often lets you down.

The colourful look back on the year of sport in Galway by Ralph O'Gorman has become an iconic part of the New Year's reflection on the event on and off the field and tracks over the past twelve months. Enjoy.

The eyes of the racing world are on Galway this week, as attendance figures are eagerly awaited by many involved in the industry. Almost 117,000 people attended over the seven days in 2022, and any decrease on this figure for the 2023 festival would be in contrast to overall attendance figures at race meetings for the first six months of this year. Statistics released recently by Horse Racing Ireland show a 7.6% increase in attendances for the first half of 2023, compared to the same period in 2022.

Day six of the Galway Festival takes centre-stage on Saturday afternoon with another cracking eight-race card for punters to enjoy at Ballybrit.

Day five of the Galway Festival takes centre-stage on Friday evening with another cracking card for punters to enjoy at Ballybrit.

Your preview to Galway Hurdle Day at Ballybrit

One of the feature races of the meeting takes centre-stage on Wednesday evening with the Galway Plate the highlight of a fabulous third day of action at the 2022 Galway Festival.

The seven-day Galway Festival gets underway at Ballybrit on Monday evening with an excellent seven-race card at the track.

It was confirmed this week that Grá Chocolates has agreed a two year sponsorship deal with the Galway Races, but the partnership’s origin is based on a historic connection with the racecourse.