Galway A Surprise Source of Horse Racing Greats
🏖️Beach Vibes
— Galway Races (@Galway_Races) July 22, 2021
🏇Horses & riders out bright & early on the gallops at South Beach in Rush, Co. Dublin as trainer @adomcguinness1 gears up for Galway next week
🚿#thecooldown #TLC #ThePrep #GalwayRaces
📸Stunning shots taken for us by David Fitzgerald @sportsfile thanks David pic.twitter.com/YEVOjQlPQE
From the chariot racing of Ancient Greece, horse racing as we know it today has its roots in the Classical period. Racing thoroughbreds has become a valuable global industry and this pastime is often referred to as the sport of kings.
Many nations that can be considered horse racing mad are English-speaking countries, each holding its own major meets. Valuable prizes which can shape the future of the thoroughbred are available, with elite three-year-olds tackling Triple Crown events or Classic races depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on and whether the horses run on dirt or turf.
In amongst the many high-profile horse racing galas held in England and Ireland that take place over the summer is the week-long Galway Festival. This is the longest continuous meet over consecutive days anywhere in the world.
Besides Premier Handicaps and Listed contests on the flat, Galway Races odds are available on some important races over jumps. These are notably the Galway Hurdle and Galway Plate. Both are run as handicaps, but the latter is a steeplechase over an extended two-and-thee-quarter miles.
National Hunt events, as jump races are officially known, largely test stamina. The way that equine bloodstock works means that winners of valuable flat staying races then breed to produce horses who can excel over longer distances in hurdles and steeplechases.
For example, it would be no surprise if the winner of the Galway Plate had been sired by a horse successful in the St Leger. Flat speed is more important for hurdle races as many of the valuable jumps prizes over these smaller obstacles are only around two miles (3,220m) in length.
Winners of the Galway Hurdle need to be able to get away from the final flight as fast as possible and quicken up to the finishing line. The 2018 victor, Sharjah, who defied topweight and has since scored in four Grade 1 races in Ireland, is a great example.
Coming from off the pace late in a race, swooping down and past frontrunners with a turn of foot is a key ingredient of hurdling that would very much be an optional extra with a staying steeplechaser. It's because of this that many top hurdlers have a more middle-distance flat pedigree.
Some of the best hurdlers can also be a force on the level. Take 2010 Galway Hurdle hero Overturn, for instance. He also won two historic flat staying handicaps in the Northumberland Plate and Chester Cup besides the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.
Despite its status as a handicap where the official rating of a horse relative to the others competing determines the weight carried, the Galway Plate has produced both Irish Gold Cup and Cheltenham Festival winners down the years. Carlingford Lough, the successful horse in 2013, went on to even greater things at Leopardstown.
Balko Des Flos topped and tailed his 2017-18 season with wins in the Galway Plate and Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham. Even in his veteran years, this horse showed ability and finished second in the world's most famous steeplechase, the Grand National at Aintree, at massive odds of 100/1.
Whether it's at Galway, in the UK or somewhere else on the planet, great racehorses always rise to the occasion.
