Impressive Blossom takes Festival finale

John Kiely had just six runners at this year's Galway Festival but he managed to win with three of them, as his Blossom Gate took the last race of the Festival, the Fr Breen Memorial Flat Race.

After scoring impressively on her debut at Cork earlier this month, the daughter of Westerner, was sent off the short priced 6/4 favourite and she didn’t disappoint.

She raced in rear for much of the race under Andrew Latta before being pushed along to close from four furlongs out. She moved into second over two furlongs out and once she hit the front under a furlong from home she quickly went clear and stayed on well to win by six lengths. Bless N'ject ran well to finish second for Willie & Patrick Mullins at 13/2 while Sallyanka was a further eight lengths back in third at 14/1 for Eoin Griffin and Mikey Fogarty.

Winning trainer John Kiely said afterwards: "She is a decent filly after that. We didn't know about the race in Mallow but after that, we know we have a decent filly on our hands.

"We will take it from there with here now and should could go hurdling next."

Donal Murphy