Local jockey Danny Gilligan was once again the toast of Ballybrit on Wednesday evening after landing a second Tote Galway Plate on Western Fold.
The 19-year-old rider from near Athenry famously won the €270,000 summer steeplechase feature when making all the running on Ash Tree Meadow in 2023.
Runner-up on Duffle Coast last year, Gilligan once again struck Plate gold on the rapidly progressive Gordon Elliott trained horse.
Only two of his 21 rivals carried more weight than the six-year-old but having been prominent throughout, Western Fold powered up the final hill to beat the luckless Jesse Evans by over four lengths. It was the biggest weight carried by a Plate winner since Ansar 20 years ago.
RM Block
Twice a runner-up in the Galway Hurdle, Jesse Evans faded in the closing stages and once again had to settle for second spot in a Ballybrit highlight.
The 11/1 winner supplied Elliott with a fifth Plate, and he was also responsible for the third-placed Shecouldbeanything.
If it was a fairytale outcome for Gilligan, there was frustration for Elliott’s No. 1 jockey Jack Kennedy, who opted to ride Three Card Brag only to all but lose his chance at the start.
After one false start, the field was let go the second time around and both Three Card Brag and Zenta were badly left behind the others.
“The start was a joke,” said Kennedy, who momentarily looked to get Three Card Brag into contention coming into the dip only for the horse to fade to eighth. Zenta was pulled up.
The stewards held an inquiry into the start, with audio recordings heard but no action was taken.
The fancied Anyway unseated Derek O’Connor on the first circuit while the 6/1 favourite Nurburgring blundered at the first fence and never figured before being pulled up.
“I really can’t believe it. I thought when I won it two years ago that would be me,” said Gilligan, son of trainer Paul Gilligan, whose own hope Buddy One was sixth under the winner’s brother, Jack. “I’ve been on a bit of a dry spell at the minute but days like this are what we dream of.”
It’s been a rare drought in Gilligan’s meteoric career that has also seen him secure three Cheltenham Festival victories.
Western Fold was completing a hat-trick and defined a hefty 10lb hike for winning Ballinrobe’s Mayo National in May under Gilligan. The rider won the same race in 2023 prior to landing the Plate.
Elliott was worried the penalty from that might have ruined Western Fold’s chance, but said: “Danny got away at the start and the horse jumped like a buck, I think he just missed one into the dip. Everything went right and it was poetry in motion.”
Separately, Hipop De Loire is as low as 3/1 favourite for York’s Ebor Handicap after warming up for the historic flat handicap with success in a maiden hurdle.
The odds-on favourite made most to win easily and if it was an unconventional Ebor prep, Willie Mullins’s capacity for thinking outside the box was further underlined.
Formerly trained in Poland, and with a German Listed success in 2022 for his Polish ownership, he was an unorthodox recruit to the champion jumps trainer.
“The owners emailed me a year-and-a-half ago and I just emailed back. Next thing these horses arrived,” said Mullins.
Hipop De Loire was beaten at last year’s festival and subsequently was an unlucky fifth in the Ebor, something he’s on track to try to make up for on the Knavesmire.
Hopes that Paddy Smullen, son of the late champion jockey Pat Smullen, could secure an emotional success in the amateur maiden contest aboard the favourite Mont St Michel were dashed as the 2/1 favourite finished third to Edelak, giving jockey Georgie Benson a first Galway festival winner on just her second spin
Bal Kauto got into the handicap hurdle as first reserve and made the most of his opportunity under trainer/jockey Derek Queally.
“The ‘Shark’ (John Hanlon) rang me this morning (about his non-runner) and I said ‘Thank God’,” Queally said. “We could have been going to Roscommon on Tuesday!”
Jockey Ronan Whelan got a 10-day suspension for careless riding after winning the final race on Wednesday’s Galway card aboard Teed Up. It was a sixth course win for Emmet Mullins’ charge who did well to stand up after an incident coming out of the dip.
Mullins described his horse as “soldier” and commented: “I thought the worst watching it and thought he was very lucky just to be in one piece coming away from the incident.”
The Galway Plate day attendance of 15,461 was down from last year’s corresponding figure of 16,023.
