It is 28 years since Jessica Harrington landed the first major pot of her stellar career in the Guinness Galway Hurdle and Autumn Evening could mark that anniversary in style on Thursday.
In 1994 Oh So Grumpy justified a major gamble in the summer’s biggest hurdle prize to announce his trainer on the big stage.
It proved a launch pad for a pioneering career that saw Harrington first conquer the National Hunt sphere before morphing into one of the country’s top Flat trainers.
Magical Lagoon’s Irish Oaks success earlier this month is just the latest evidence of the 75-year-old’s remarkable impact on the sport.
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Recalling Oh So Grumpy’s success, Harrington later said: “It was 1994 so we had only been going for five years and it helped raise the profile. But the part about being the first woman to train a Galway Hurdle winner wasn’t a thing for me at all.”
She remains the only woman to win the famous race and despite her focus on the Flat these days has two chances to repeat the feat.
The Very Man is a course and distance winner from 2020 when trained by Gordon Elliott but it is Denis O’Regan’s mount Autumn Evening that looks one to note in his first spin around Ballybrit.
Winner of last season’s Lartigue at Listowel, he has usually looked more adept over flights than on the level but was nevertheless heavily backed last time in a Curragh handicap.
It didn’t come off then but might still serve a purpose in teeing Autumn Evening up for this assignment.
Successful route
The Harrington string could hardly be in better form overall and the hustle and bustle of a famously competitive handicap should be no trouble.
Negotiating a successful route through the various traffic problems has proved no problem to Patrick Mullins with three victories in the last four years for the record-breaking amateur jockey.
Despite that Willie Mullins has no place for him on any of his four runners with Paul Townend opting to side with Adamantly Chosen.
The lightly raced five-year-old ran a good race behind Camprond at the Punchestown festival in April but needs to step up on that to figure here.
Heiea in contrast won her last start and has her chance as does Farout provided there’s no repeat of the headstrong tendencies that ruined his opportunity in Monday’s big amateur contest.
The pace that a Galway Hurdle usually gets run at should be a help to both him and to the high-class mare Santa Rossa who scored at Grade Three level last time.
Gordon Elliott has a handful of horses in his attempt to finally break his Galway Hurdle duck.
Glan at the bottom of the handicap has a shot on her Fairyhouse form in April while Felix Dejy at the top of the ratings was a hot favourite for this in 2020 only to fall at the second.
Anna Bunina has a €25,000 bonus in her sights if she adds this to her victory at Bellewstown earlier this month but might prefer going left-handed.
A typically fierce Galway Hurdle contest looks assured again but time has hardly diluted Jessica Harrington’s appetite for coming out on top.
Willie Mullins has a handful of other runners on the Day 4 programme and Ganapathi looks like a leading player in the Grade Three novice chase.
Ganapthai is unbeaten in two starts over fences at Wexford this summer and while Galway presents a very different challenge the former decent hurdler looks a decent prospect over fences.
Hors Piste carries the same Joe Donnelly colours in a later novice hurdle and can get the better of a clash with the former Chester Cup hero Falcon Eight.
Dermot Weld’s runner is talented over flights too and will relish decent ground conditions here.
However, his Mullins-trained rival boasts Grade One placed form in the spring and subsequently won a glorified work-out at Kilbeggan in May.
Flat feature
Thursday’s Flat race feature is the Listed Corrib Stakes where a large field of fillies will slug it out in pursuit of various forms of black-type.
Ger Lyons has two of the three runners with triple-figure ratings and Colin Keane’s decision to ride Affogato is hard to ignore.
She was also Keane’s pick in the Brownstown Stakes earlier this month which her stable companion Marbling eventually landed.
That was only after Affogato’s saddle slipped when the diminutive filly was launching her challenge and ruined her chance.
Nectaris was runner-up in the Brownstown and renews rivalry with a plum inside draw in stall one.
In contrast, Affogato is on the wide outside but it’s been noticeable this week how that hasn’t proved a complete black mark.
Keane has proven his ability to overcome a wide berth and it could prove no obstacle to the top-rated Affogato.
