GALWAY DAY THREE REPORT:IF YOU'RE going to break your festival duck at Ballybrit then the William Hill Galway Plate is the race to do it in which is just what Andrew McNamara managed in memorable style on Ballyholland yesterday.

Trained by Colin McBratney in Co Down, the 16 to 1 shot became the first winner of the summer steeplechase highlight to be trained in the North since Persian Lark in 1972.

Remarkably though it was Ballyholland’s jockey who notched up a very personal first since McNamara had never before ridden a Galway festival winner of any description.

Considering the 26-year-old is among the leading National Hunt riders in the country, with Grade One victories in the bag at Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown, it seemed a remarkable omission on his CV.

Even more so considering McNamara’s younger brother Robbie has ridden four winners here, including Monday’s amateur feature on Ghimaar. No doubt some sibling ribbing was finally put to bed with yesterday’s win.

“I remember I was beaten a short head here once but the cameraman thought I’d won and followed me back in the whole way,” McNamara remembered ruefully. “But this is a nice one to start off in!” He added: “I thought he had an each way chance but I didn’t think he would win like he did. He was going as fast as he wanted in the early stages but his jumping was very good and allowed him keep a position.”

Ballyholland’s final position was eight lengths clear of Knock On The Head with Washington Lad half a length further back in third, which put McBratney’s pre-race fears firmly to bed.

“I was terrified of the ground (soft) but I knew he was in great form and Andrew was the first one to tell he would get two miles and six,” said the trainer who has a mostly point-to-point string.

“This is a dream for me and the owner (Cathal McGovern) and it will be like Sam Maguire going home to Down. The horse is named after a football club in Newry,” McBratney added. “I’ve always felt he would be some horse to jump a fence at Aintree so we will look at the Becher Chase in November.”

The Paul Nicholls-trained 11 to 2 favourite Roby de Cimbre was never a factor on ground that jockey Ruby Walsh earlier described as “very dead” and finished tailed off.

The complexion of the big race was altered in the morning with four non-runners, two of which (Northern Alliance and Green Mile) were taken out by Tony Martin due to ground conditions. Northern Alliance is a declared runner in today’s big hurdle race and has been cleared to run by the stewards with Tony McCoy riding.

Champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins was out of luck in the Plate but doubled up earlier with Tawaagg’s odds on success in the opening novice hurdle as well as an easy victory in the mile and a half amateur race for Blackstairmountain.

“He has kept improving and I think he has the ability to make it at the top level over hurdles,” Mullins said after Blackstairmountain’s success. “He will go out to grass now and won’t be back hurdling until late in the season – maybe Christmas.”

At least two punters were very happy with the mile handicap success of Gimli’s Rock, and his keeping the race in a stewards’ inquiry, as there were two winning tickets in a jackpot pool worth €156,381. Each got €58,642. Winning jockey Keegan Latham got a three-day ban in the inquiry for careless riding.

Charlie Moore trains just two horses near Letterkenny in Co Donegal and the yard’s mainstay Steig carried topweight to success in the mile handicap under Gary Carroll. “He won four races in England before he came to me and is a grand horse to have around. He’s won two and been second for me now,” Moore said.

Steve Capall emerged best of a prolonged duel with The Rebel Returns in the handicap hurdle to score for a syndicate.

** The sharp plummet in attendance figures at this year’s Galway festival continued yesterday with an almost 20 per cent drop of 4,800 from last year down to 20,740.

Betting again tumbled with a bookmaker total of €2,542,174 down almost three quarters of a million on last year’s €3,288,446. A total of €421,453 was bet on the Galway Plate.

There was a drop of over a quarter of a million euro in Tote turnover but it still managed to breach the million mark at €1,044,183.