Friday evening has become the busiest date of the Galway festival and crowds getting their Bank Holiday weekend under way could wind up toasting jockey Joey Sheridan in the feature event.
Sheridan landed the Guinness Handicap in front of empty stands on Princess Zoe in 2020 and she famously progressed that season to give the 20-year-old rider Group One glory in the Prix Du Cadran.
A year later and Sheridan was runner-up in the €110,000 Ballybrit feature on Longbourn, who came up short against Crowns Major.
This time his services have been snapped up by Noel Meade for Cask Mate who takes his chance in the ultra-competitive mile and a half highlight in front of a potentially massive crowd.
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The last pre-pandemic festival in 2019 saw almost 31,000 people cram into Ballybrit in what has become almost a changing of the guard with holiday makers taking over for the weekend from more regular racegoers.
Sheridan is back in Galway action having partnered Princess Zoe in Tuesday’s Goodwood Cup and Cask Mate is back at Ballybrit too.
The nine-year-old briefly looked like landing Monday’s big amateur event when leading on the turn-in only to ultimately fade to fifth up the hill behind Echoes In Rain.
Considering how he fluffed the start, however, and was up against it almost from the off, it was a fine effort by a relatively lightly raced horse who has managed to win on the flat, over hurdles and in a bumper.
Sheridan has to navigate a route from the widest draw of all but such positions haven’t proved insurmountable this week.
Willie Mullins has a fine record in the race and relies solely on last year’s fourth Baby Zeus, who has a couple of pounds lower mark now.
Merroir is a course and distance winner, while the step up to a mile and a half could bring further improvement from the three-year-old Shark Bay.
Mullins is also reliant on a single runner in the main National Hunt prize, the €80,000 Galway Blazers Chase, part of eight-race card shown live on TG4.
Fan de Blues has winning form at the course which is always a plus but this is a trappy looking contest topped by the 2021 Irish Grand National hero Freewheelin Dylan.
With only the bottomweight Bold Emperor carrying less than 11st, this is a compressed race where Paddy O’Hanlon’s 5lb claim is a big plus to Freewheelin Dylan.
Another with a big weight is Busselton, who warmed up for this with a win on the flat in Roscommon a month ago.
Joseph O’Brien’s horse memorably secured runner-up money at Cheltenham in the Turners Chase eventually won by Bob Olinger after Galopin Des Champs’ dramatic last-fence exit.
He is a three-time winner over fences though and might prove the solution on Friday evening.
The Mullins team may make hay on the flat in the final two races.
M C Muldoon was successful in a hurdle at last year’s festival and hasn’t been seen in action since making no impression in the Newmarket Cesarewitch last autumn.
Such a lengthy lay-off shouldn’t be a problem from this yard in a conditions race where Sandhurst’s 106 rating also leaves him with an obvious chance.
Perhaps the most intriguing Mullins runner is Indigo Desert, who is joint-topweight for the concluding handicap.
Colin Keane also teams up with this horse who has only two career starts under his belt, winning the second of them for Michael Halford at Dundalk in December.
He now races in the colours of former Horse Racing Ireland chairman Joe Keeling and has been given a mark of 75. Clearly both Keane and Mullins believe that’s exploitable.
Rockbury Lad endured a luckless passage through the race won by Dairerin on Monday. He is upped to a mile for the first time in another handicap now but shaped earlier this week like he would relish the trip.
Nibiru is another that won on the flat on his last start and returns to jumping for the opening handicap hurdle. Tony Martin’s runner operated around this track last year and is at the right end of the scales to run a big race.
