Galway festival - day one

Many racegoers now regard the Galway festival as the best Irish meeting of all, and with the prize-money continuing to go up and all the leading Irish trainers (both flat and N.H.) strongly represented, this year´s festival may well be the best ever. The opening race could well go to a German-bred, as Dancera (Mervyn Torrens/ A.P.Thornton) was a narrow winner over hurdles last week at Ballinrobe and has a chance in the novice hurdle at 18.10 CET, although the opposition is now much stronger. The race for 2yo maodens at 19.20 sees a clash- likely to be repeated often this week- between Dermot Weld, who usually targets this meeting, and Aidan O´Brien, who can do litlle wrong at present. Their runners Broad Meaning (Pat Smullen) and Drumbeat (Johnny Murtagh) will probably take the first two places, with thre Aa Khan´s debutant Zarinski (John Oxx/ Mick Kinane) looking the only danger. Big race today is the 2 mile handicap for amateur riders at 20.00, worth a whoppin 60,000 euros to the winner. Wth 20 runners, almost anything can happen. The field includes German-bred Arc Bleu (Tony Martin/ C.P.McNally) and Halla San (Richard Fahey/ Ben Hamilton), who recently filled the first twoµplaces in the Northumberland Plate. The latter is now two pounds better off for a short head. Dermot Weld´s Majestic Concorde (Robbie McNamara) has an obvious chance, as does P´tit Fute (Francis Flood/ Derek O´Connor), who has not run on the flat since winning this race 2 years ago, but is a recent winner over hurdles. However the likely favourite is Miss Fancy Pants, winner of her last 2 races, and the choice of top amateur Nina Carberry from Noel Meade´s 3 entries