Galway Festival Preview: Wotsitooya might be the oldest runner in today's Hewlett-Packard Galway Plate, but the veteran can prove the value of experience with victory in the festival highlight.
Runner-up to Rockholm Boy in the 2002 Plate, Wotsitooya will be deemed by many to have missed his big chance, and it is his stable companion, Banasan, half his age at six, who has dominated the ante-post betting. That could prove a mistake.
Like Wotsitooya, Banasan is a course and distance winner, but he comes into this ultra-competitive, €170,000 chase with just four starts over fences, and any jumping errors will count for a lot.
Nevertheless, a hurdles start at Ballinrobe recently will have put Banasan spot on, and the big race specialist Jim Culloty takes the ride. That will encourage the younger horse's fans, but the presence of Davy Russell on Wotsitooya is also a big plus.
Russell has ridden the horse only three times but has been first past the post on each occasion. Last October the partnership got thrown out of the Munster National for taking the wrong course, but a defeat of Timbera in the Pat Taaffe Chase at Punchestown in April got the streak back on track. The Plate has been the target since.
"He was unlucky here two years ago when he made a mistake down the back and then got into contention too quickly," said trainer Michael O'Brien, who tasted Plate glory with the 20-to-1 Dovaly four years ago. "But even at 12 he shows no signs of being over the hill."
That last 12-year-old to win the Plate was Royal Day in 1969, and Wotsitooya is now over a stone higher in the ratings since his Plate run in 2002. Nevertheless, the forecast good-to-firm ground will be much more suitable than last year's surface, when he managed only 11th, and he is proven over the course.
The big local hope will be the Iggy Madden-trained Wests Awake, who ended up as first reserve yesterday morning but who looks like getting a run after Ross Moff was found to be coughing after his second placing last night.
Another long-time fancy has been Manjoe, but two chase starts at Cork make experience a real factor with him.
Dermot Weld has won the race twice, and despite Ansar's excellent record on the course, Direct Bearing could be the best of his pair today. But the fast going looks a negative with that stayer.
Barry Geraghty has chosen to ride Colca Canyon, who warmed up for this with a five-length second to Glinger at Market Rasen. Last season's high-class novice won't mind the ground, but 11.9 is a lot of weight to carry.
Davy Russell will be odds-on to kick off the day with a winner, as he is on Monday night's impressive GPT winner, Rockstown Boy, in the conditions hurdle.
Russell also teams up with Charles Byrnes in the handicap hurdle, where the high-class chaser Cloudy Bays has a first start in five months. Off a 106 hurdles mark, the Leopardstown Chase and Troytown winner is an obvious candidate, but another is last year's winner, Jaguar Claw.
Weld's Rich Sense is on a hat-trick mission in the mile-and-a-half handicap, and considering the Curragh trainer's Ballybrit record she is likely to figure at the top of the market.
But the fast-ground specialist Moratorium could shake her up at his best, and he was seen running on well behind Palace Star at the Curragh on his last start.
