The Plate and the Hurdle may have been run and won for another year but there is still plenty of euros up for grabs at the Galway Festival, with the lion's share of Friday's prize money going to the winner of the Guinness Handicap.
John Oxx is double-handed, with the progressive Dawariya joined by Johnny Murtagh's mount Celendine, while Aidan O'Brien gives Obligation his belated seasonal debut in the mile-and-a-half contest and Dermot Weld's Honey Of A Kitten adds further strength to the three-year-old party.
Weld lowers Address Unknown's sights for the Guinness Race and this appears a suitable opportunity for a confidence booster before a step back up in class.
The master of Rosewell applies blinkers to Harangue for the Budweiser Index EBF Maiden and this 100,000-euro purchase did enough on his Curragh introduction to suggest a race of this nature is within his compass.
Zarzal and Monte Carlo, representing Oxx and O'Brien respectively, are other lively players.
The O'Brien-trained Fairylike came agonisingly close to that elusive first success at Gowran Park last time and should feature prominently in the Arthur Guinness Handicap, although this is a wide-open heat and Monday's winner Good Shot Noreen is saddled with top weight under her 5lb penalty.
Catamount has gone some way to justifying her Group-race entries when hitting the crossbar on her two starts and will be hard to hold out in the Guinness 17:59 EBF Auction Maiden, while the jumpers get the card under way at 5.10 in the Guinness (QR) Handicap Hurdle and Weld's Rainforest Magic reverts to obstacles on the back of a Flat victory here earlier in the week.
Colm Murphy's recent Midlands National winner Future All Star is one of five last-start winners lining up for the Guinness Galway Blazers Handicap Chase, with Wins Now also in contention as he aims to repeat last year's heroics.
