Galway betting with William Hill

Galway racecourse is in the village of Ballybrit in County Galway in Ireland. Galway betting focuses on the seven-day Galway Summer Festival in late July or early August.

There are always plenty of Galway betting tips for the featured Galway Plate and Galway Hurdle, two of the most competitive handicaps in the racing calendar.

William Hill promotions include special offers, daily price boosts and the best Galway odds and ante-post prices.

Betting at Galway – The Big Meetings

The Galway Festival celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2019. The meeting gets underway on a Monday.

The main Galway betting races at the Festival meeting are the Galway Plate on Wednesday and Galway Hurdle on the following day. Thursday is also Ladies’ Day, where the top prizes are equally hotly contested.

The week comprises of both flat and National Hunt races. The quality is not as high as that of the Cheltenham or Punchestown festival meetings, but the Galway betting markets are notoriously strong. The Grade 3 Ballybrit Novice Chase takes place in October.

Galway Betting – The Big Races

The Galway Plate is a handicap chase over 2m6f, with 14 fences to be jumped. The inaugural running in 1869 was won by Absentee.

The Galway Hurdle is a handicap hurdle over 2m and was first run in 1913, with victory going to Red Damsel. It’s now Ireland’s richest hurdle race and attracts a good quality field and some very big Galway bets.

The Ballybrit Novice Chase is a Grade 3 race over 2m1f and was first run in 1997. The inaugural running was won by Hill Society for Noel Meade and Paul Carberry. The race was given Grade 3 status in 2002.

Galway Betting Tips

Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins often feature in Galway bets and Mullins has been particularly successful with his runners over hurdles at this course.

Henry de Bromhead has maintained a good strike rate in chases here and is another trainer to note for your Galway tips.

Mullins is equally effective as a trainer to follow in flat races at Galway. Dermot Weld and Aidan O’Brien are also prolific winners at this venue.

Davy Russell is the leading jump jockey over fences here in recent seasons, while Barry Geraghty is the jockey to follow over hurdles. Declan McDonogh rides this course extremely well on the flat.

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Galway Course Characteristics

Galway is a very tight, right-handed, undulating track of about 10f. There’s a dip approaching the final two fences before a steep uphill finish. The second-last fence can be tricky as horses need to meet that on a good stride.

Unless the ground rides soft, this track suits sharp ex-flat racers over the more stoutly-bred National Hunt horses.

The runners are constantly on the turn and you should look for horses who stay close to the pace for your Galway bets. There are often large fields for the top handicaps here, making it a very difficult task to come from off the pace.

You should also take the draw into account when assessing Galway tips in the flat races here. A low draw is a distinct advantage in the competitive 7f and 1m handicaps. Previous Galway form is also a positive factor.

Famous Galway Races and Racehorses

Tipperary Boy won the Galway Plate three times in 1899, 1901 and 1902. He also won the Irish Grand National in 1901. Clonsheever won the Plate in 1923 and 1924, but was beaten in his hat-trick bid when third under a massive 13st 1lb in weight.

Another popular Galway bet was a horse called East Galway, a winner in 1928 and placed under big weights in 1929 and 1931. Irish Grand National winner Red Park (1933) was another horse to go on successfully from Galway.

There have been some high-class winners of the Plate including General Idea (1993) and Life Of A Lord (1995 and 1996).

General Idea was trained by Dermot Weld and defied top weight of 12st, a performance matched by Life Of A Lord. The latter was trained by Aidan O’Brien before he turned his attention to the flat.

Other notable winners include Carlingford Lough (2013), Road To Riches (2014) and Balko Des Flos (2017). Carlingford Lough’s career wins included the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown and the Punchestown Gold Cup.

Donald McCain Jnr won the Galway Hurdle with Overturn in 2016, ridden by Graham Lee. Quick Jack was a popular Galway tip when winning this race in 2015 for Tony Martin and Denis O’Regan. He ran at the Galway Festival for four successive seasons, winning twice and finishing runner-up.

Clondaw Warrior won for Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh the following season, another popular Galway tip, starting 9/2 favourite.

Mullins struck again in 2018 when Sharjah won at 12/1. He went on to win the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown and Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Notable winners of the Ballybrit Novice Chase include Vic Venturi (2006), Twinlight (2012) and Rathvinden (2017). Vic Venturi won the valuable Becher Chase at Aintree in 2009 and won the Grade 2 Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse in 2010.

Twinlight was a high-class chaser, with his biggest victory coming in a Grade 1 chase at Leopardstown in 2014. Rathvinden won the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham in 2018 and ran the race of his life to finish third in the 2019 Aintree Grand National.

Galway Horse Racing History

The first Galway Festival meeting was held over two days in 1869 and attracted a crowd of 40,000.

The man given most recognition as the driving force behind the meeting was Lord St. Lawrence, M.P. for Galway and hugely influential in the creation of Punchestown.

Notable early winners at Galway included The Liberator (1879), who was later ridden to victory in the Grand National by owner Garrett Moore. Drogheda (1898) was another previous Galway winner to enjoy success in the Aintree Grand National at odds of 25/1.

Anne Collen became the first female trainer to win the Galway Plate when saddling Randoss in 1987. Her sister Sarah also became the first female jockey to win the Plate when riding Bold Flyer to victory two years later.

Trainer Harry Ussher trained the winners of all seven races on the opening day of the festival in 1920.

Such was the popularity of the meeting that it was extended to three days (1959), four days (1971), five days (1974), six days (1982) and eventually a full seven-day fixture in 1999.

In 2016, plans were announced for a big redevelopment at the course ahead of the 2018 Festival meeting. The Festival meeting now attracts an estimated 150,000 spectators during the week.

Galway Racecourse - How to get there

Galway racecourse is located off the M6 motorway and is easily reached from Dublin, Cork or Limerick. It’s only 40 miles from Shannon Airport, two hours from Dublin Airport and an hour from Knock Airport.

If arriving by car from Dublin and the east, follow the M4 and M6 to Bothar na dTreabh/N6 in Galway.

From Limerick, take the R445 to N18 in Clare, then the N66 in Galway. Follow the N18 and R446 in Galway. There’s a races shuttle bus in operation from Eyre Square to the track for the Summer Festival meeting.