Galway Festival starts today

The week-long Galway Festival starts today at the picturesque Ballybrit racecourse. This small town on the West coast of Ireland stages the most important summer meeting in the country and it is a huge sporting and social occasion. There is a simple way for punters to make a profit at the meeting - simply back all runners trained by Dermot Weld. All the top trainers are here - O´Brien, Oxx, Bolger et al - but Weld always targets this fixture and has a phenomenal record here. He has been the leading trainer at the meeting for the past 25 years (!!) and sent out 17 winners last year to beat his own record. He has runners in all 7 races today as follows: 17.00 CET (novice hurdle) Train of Thought (Ruby Walsh) faces some strong opposition here, but gets 10 lbs from the main danger, Gordon Elliott´s Discoteca (Davy Russell), who has won his last 4 races, and may be good enough 17.30 (handicap hurdle) Teach Nua (Paul Townend) has won at this meetimg both kon the flat and over hurdl es and despite inconsistent form should be back at his best today 18.00 (2yo maiden) Thunder Mountain (Pat Smullen) - the obvious danger here is Line Drummer (Aidan and Joseph O´Brien) from the stable that has won the last 4 runnings but Weld´s charge has probably been prepared for this 18.35 (2 mile handicap for amateur riders) Midnight Music (Miss JM Mangan) up in distance but has also probably been laid out for this, top-weight Shadow Eile (Mrs D Love/ Mr CM Murphy) the danger 19.10 (3yo handicap, 7 furlongs) Fastidious (Smullen) same applies here, looks very well handicapped 19.40 (3yo handicap, 1 1/2 miles) Encrypted Message (Smullen) won in good style last time and can take this step up in class 20.10 ( 2 mile bumper) Silver Concorde (Robbie McManamara) beaten at odds-on when last seen in January, certain to be favourite again but looks a good thing here. We are not saying that all 7 will win, but they all have their chances and we shall be amazed if there not at leas t 2 - and probably more - winners here.