RACING:IT'S BEEN a while since Dessie Hughes became one of those rare people to have both ridden and trained winners of the Tote Galway Plate but Deal Done can bridge a 27-year gap in today's €200,000 festival highlight.
Deal Done’s young jockey Bryan Cooper is having just a second ride in the midsummer steeplechase feature but his veteran boss can trace a Plate history at least back to 1975 when riding Our Albert to success.
A decade later Chow Mein provided a vital boost to Hughes’s fledgling training career which subsequently has seen him hit the heights with Hardy Eustace Co but fail to hit the Plate bulls-eye again.
With an unsettled forecast likely to impact on ground conditions even more, the shape of this year’s big race could flip around with the quality topweight Follow The Plan likely to feel every pound of his 11.10 and the long-time ante-post favourite Blackstairmountain set to have his stamina tested.
The furthest Willie Mullins’s dual-Grade One winner has raced to date is two and a half miles over hurdles and the famous Ballybrit hill will be a major examination for him. “He has won on softer ground, but I would prefer it if it stayed drier,” said Mullins yesterday.
Dermot Weld is seeking a fifth win with his pair, Prince Erik and Daffern Seal. The latter is having just his sixth ever race but won over course and distance last year and is a spectacular jumper. How he will handle more cut in the ground though is questionable.
Champion owner JP McManus has a team of six due to carry his famous colours, including last year’s runner-up Wise Old Owl, while his big rival Michael O’Leary will be represented by both Campbonnais and Carlito Brigante. The latter is a class hurdler who has run just twice over fences. However ground conditions too could emerge as a big stumbling block for Carlito Brigante.
McManus’s Torpichen won’t run in the Galway Plate after the stewards last night decided the Edward O’Grady-trained horse was not qualified to run.
In the circumstances a touch of each-way looks important and while Out Now, runner up in the Irish National last Easter, will top many lists, Deal Done might be a better option. This two-and-three-quarter miles should be perfect and while the ground may be softer than ideal Deal Done has won on heavy in the past.
Dermot Weld and Jane Mangan will be widely fancied to double up with Three Kingdoms in the mile and a half amateur maiden. However Willie Mullins interrupted Weld’s domination of this race in 2009 with Blackstairmountain and could do so again with the 85- rated Fatcatinthehat, named after headlines referring to the horse’s owner, banker, Rich Ricci.
Weld has won 10 of the last 12 runnings on the concluding maiden and Tandem looks a prime contender to keep that hot-streak going today.
Go On Murt has risen in the weights on the back of a couple of Dundalk all-weather wins but Kedleston might be a value alternative to him and Diplomat in the mile handicap. Too Scoops has the advantage of a run over hurdles against Ted Veale in the opening maiden hurdle and that experience can prove decisive.
