one day it might be only mullins v elliott, a great day uncelebrated & the first evening meeting.

​It is a shame that Galway coincides with Glorious Goodwood every year. This past week has been quite dull in both Britain and Ireland and Galway would have changed all that. The oft said but know quite forgotten phrase ‘see Naples and die’ should be, if legend and myth is not too exaggerated, ‘see Galway and die’, such is the reputation for partying and gaiety of the 7-day festival.
Unfortunately, Galway in the summer is becoming a replication of winter racing in the whole of Ireland, a beanfest for the larger stables, especially those of Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott. Indeed, if Ireland were to follow Britain and introduce a harmonising tax that can only cause disharmony and heartbreak to everyone involved in the sport, Irish racing might end-up as a dual between its two leading stables, both of whom will have 300-horses at their disposal and every owner with the wealth, enthusiasm and dogged spirit, to struggle on.
There are 32 entries for the Galway Plate to be run next Wednesday, July 30Th, 17 of which are trained by either Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott. Is this a good look for the sport? Is this a foreshadowing of the future of our sport?

Matt Rennie’s report on the day’s racing at Cartmel yesterday focused on the success of At Vimiero in the maiden hurdle due entirely to the fact that he had cost 650,000-Guineas at Newmarket’s Book 1 yearling sale, his value plummeting to 34,000-Guineas when acquired by his present connections. Why the great day enjoyed by local trainer Jimmy Moffatt was worth barely two-dozen words at the end of the report will no doubt baffle Moffatt and his owners as it has me. He had 3-winners and 4-seconds and 3 unplaced, worthy, I suggest, of taking the headlines in the sport’s newspaper, would you not agree? Local man makes good.
His stable jockey, and it is ridiculous that she is not used by other northern trainers, Charlotte Jones rode 2 of those winners, with Brian Hughes winning on Sea the Clouds. She was also runner-up 3-times, including on 25/1 shot Mojo Ego. Horses, as it seems to be with female jockeys, run and jump for Jones and having already surpassed 100-winners, it must be talent and skill and not luck that propels her career.
Moffatt, like his stable jockey, goes under the radar, a force to be reckoned with around Cartmel and yet, given he has trained a Cheltenham Festival winner, he is not patronised by the wealthier and more prominent owners. Given he trains in one of the most scenic areas of the country and is a proven trainer of winners, I would have thought a weekend in the Lake District visiting your horses would be a major attraction, even for southern-based owners.

Hamilton, surprisingly, was the first racecourse in Britain to stage an evening meeting, though historian John Fairfax-Blakeborough believes there was an evening meeting held at York in 1784, of which the fifth race was the fastest of the night, even though it was run in complete darkness.
Returning to Hamilton on July 18th, 1947, 18,000 people attended the meeting. Yes, we can only wish today for such popularity amongst the public. It is possible, though, the large attendance had more than a little to do with Glasgow Fair Holiday being in full swing. To blow my own trumpet, I have advocated in the past that racing should return to its roots in the summer months and stage1, 2 and 3-day meetings to coincide with local fairs and carnivals.

The first radio commentary on horse racing was as far back as 1927, with Geoffrey Gilbey and George Allison commentating on the Epsom Derby win of Call Boy (an appropriately named winner given it was the first ever race ‘called’ by a commentator) and ridden by Charlie Elliott.
The following year Gilbey commentated on the Grand National victory of Tipperary Tim who beat the only other finisher, the American horse Billy Barton.