Galway Racecourse© Photo Healy Racing
The Galway festival is Irish racing’s most distinctive feature. There’s nothing new in pointing that out but it bears repeating because there’s nothing like it elsewhere in the racing world. Galway is a self-perpetuating phenomenon that mostly exists in a self-contained bubble divorced from what happens out on the track which in terms of top sporting quality is mostly irrelevant. And the festival’s ‘USP’ is that it doesn’t matter.
Galway devotees get shirty when the racing gets dismissed, pointing to an impressive roll-call of mostly maiden winners who went on to Group 1 glory down through years. But the reality is the vast majority of the action revolves around handicaps, some of them very ordinary handicaps indeed.
That has never mattered because Joe Public has always desperately wanted to bet on it. The power of the Ballybrit betting ring was vitally important for years and it will be interesting in the coming years to see if the growing irrelevance of on-course bookmaking will have an impact on the festival’s overall appeal. Will a worldwide digital audience view Galway as a colourful challenge or a colourful distraction because quality racing provokes most online turnover.
Considering the attendance peaks at the height of the economic boom, last year’s festival attendance of less than 140,000 was a significant drop, and proof that not even the hardiest of institutions is immune to general realities. With the future in mind, it’s no bad thing to see concession prices for children in place this week.
However the suspicion must be that Galway will ultimately be capable of surfing whatever changes occur in consumer behaviour. Its overall appeal appears to be bombproof, regardless of any purist sniffiness about the quality of the actual action. Just like Royal Ascot, it’s all about being there, even though it’s hard to imagine more different racing experiences.
In September, Irish racing’s latest profile-boost attempt will take place with the ‘Champions Weekend’ at Leopardstown and the Curragh. In quality action terms it will be unsurpassed. And in attendance terms, it’s quite possible both meetings combined won’t pull in what will turn up for a single day at Ballybrit. As USP’s go, that really is unique.
In terms of the 2014 festival, it looks like any consoling thoughts bookmakers might have had about Dermot Weld having shot his bolt so to speak with a sparkling season to date are groundless. The master trainer looks to have a strong team of entries and the relevance of what’s happened already this season could be confined to an encouraging twenty five per cent strike rate overall.
If Weld is always Galway’s headline act - and it is fifty years this week since he rode Ticonderoga to that famous amateur success in 1964 - then it will also be interesting to see how the week goes for jockey Mark Walsh. A Plate winner on Bob Lingo two years ago, Walsh has become a day-to-day feature in his role as JP McManus’s jockey here but remains it seems determinedly low-profile. However he starts the week on top of the jockeys standings for the season so far with eighteen winners and by general consent the twenty eight year old is riding better than ever.
With the McManus team so much depends on where Tony McCoy wants to go, but he’s in remorseless record pursuit in Britain so more and more opportunities could be coming Walsh’s way in Ireland.
It might be dangerous to get too carried away with the bare form of Taghrooda’s King George victory. Telescope after all has yet to win a Group 1 and Mukhadram took a long time to secure top-flight honours. But in visual terms the unbeaten Oaks winner was exceptional. You have to love the way she shot clear of her rivals inside the final furlong when shown the whip. And she won while giving the impression there is more to come.
Talking about the Arc now is futile considering ground conditions can change within hours come October but it’s hardly unknown for at least good ground at Longchamp and should that be the case you wouldn’t want to be on anything else.
What’s been interesting in recent weeks is how the narrative of how this year’s classic colts are supposedly a vintage crop keeps getting knocked by exposure to older rivals. Kingston Hill didn’t get close in the Eclipse and Romsdal didn’t much in the King George, examples that are hardly isolated. Should Kingman come up short against Toronado at Goodwood this week, then the jury will really be out on the colts.
As things stand now, though, it’s hard to argue against Taghrooda as Europe’s outstanding three year old. Sea The Moon is a dark horse of sorts. But he’s only darkish because he’s based in Germany, and wasn’t it noticeable how the eleven length German Derby runner up Lucky Lion beat Noble Mission in Munich at the weekend.
Clearly absence isn’t helping present perceptions of Australia but it will be fascinating to see what he does if or when he comes up against older horses. As for clashing with Taghrooda, or indeed, Sea The Moon, one can dream, but it’s entirely possible it will never happen, which might make business sense but is entirely unsatisfactory in sporting terms.
