Business As Usual For King Of Ballybrit It was business as usual as the Galway Festival got underway last evening where ?King of Ballybrit' Dermot Weld kept his huge army of supporters in the bumper 19,212 crowd happy when landing the first three races on the card. The Rosewell house maestro, who has dominated this fixture in recent years, was quickly off the mark when saddling 15/8 favourite, Summer Soul, in the colours of Dr Michael Smurfit to land the opening G.P.T Sligo novice hurdle. Brilliantly handled by Ruby Walsh, the winner, who scored by a length, had to pull out all the stops in the concluding stages to overtake the Paul Carberry-ridden Serve Time, who had attempted to make all the running. Weld, who was landing the opening race of the meeting for the third year in a row, was full of praise for both horse and rider. He said: 'That was a very decent race and I knew my horse would be hard to beat. Ruby (Walsh) was a big help, but I knew our horse would stay on up the hill. There's a good staying race ?like the English Cesarewitch ? in this fellow over the next few seasons.' Just over half an hour later the Weld/Walsh partnership, who team up with top-weight Ansar in Wednesday's William Hill Galway Plate, were back in the number one spot as 9/2 favourite, Zeroberto, proved way too strong for his 19 rivals when beating Pat Fahy's Thunder Road by four and a half lengths in the G.P.T. Dublin handicap hurdle. A beaming Weld revealed: 'This horse jumps super. He'll turn out again under a penalty in Thursday's Guinness Galway Hurdle (now 5/1 from 10/1 for that race with William Hill) following a similar route to Ansar, who won this race before going on to succeed in the hurdle.' Just to illustrate his versatility, Weld completed his bookie-bashing hat-trick when his 11/8 favourite, Fleeting Shadow, kept on in good fashion to deny market-rival Chivalrous(13/8) by a length and a half in the first flat race of the festival, the seven-furlong G.P.T. Access maiden. Weld was claiming this race for an amazing 17th time, and he nominated the National Stakes at the Curragh as the son of Danehill's next assignment. 'We've won this race with some very, very good horses in the past, and this colt has a huge future as well,' commented winning rider Pat Smullen. The featured G.P.T. Amateur Handicap provided 21-year-old Kilkenny jockey James O'Farrell with his first ever success over the course (27th in all) when he guided the Francis Flood-trained 14/1 shot P'tit Fute to a comfortable success. Always in the front rank, the French-bred bounded clear over two-furlongs out and galloped on resolutely up the hill to see of the challenge of the running-on Navajo Chieftain(Derek O'Connor) by 12 lengths. Athlumney Lad filled third spot for Noel Meade and Jason McKeown a further two lengths in rear. The winner is owned by the JRM Racing Syndicate headed by Longford-born Us-based publican John Mahon. A delighted Flood, who received the okay from the course doctor after having a scary moment when pinned against the wall while saddling the winner, explained: 'I never rode or trained the winner of this race and it's a great one to win. We mapped this race out for him when he won here 12 months ago and it has worked out well. He's in the Galway Hurdle on Thursday, but is unlikely to get a run. He could come back here on Saturday if he misses out on that.' O'Farrell, who only joined Flood's Co Wicklow yard nine months ago, was over the moon to record such a high profile success. 'It's a great felling to win a big-race like that. My horse was very good and he fairly flew up that hill when I asked him.' Kieren Fallon missed out on a winner when he failed to make it back from Turkey (where he was riding on Sunday) in time to take the mount on Ger Lyons' Raspberry Beret in the seven-furlong G.P.T Cork handicap. Fallon's Ballydoyle colleague Seamie Heffernan proved an able deputy aboard the 13/2 chance who overhauled the front-running Careless Abandon close home to score by half a length. Loudest cheer of the evening was reserved for Almighty Jade who carried the colours of local owner Joseph Joyce from nearby Tuam to success in the 12 furlong G.P.T. Van & Truck Rentals Handicap. David Wachman trains the Wayne Lordan partnered 8/1 shot, who had one and three-quarter lengths to spare over the fast-finishing Cabo. Glaczer Flyer (20/1) provided the layers with a result when running out the very easy four length winner of the concluding bumper for trainer Jessica Harrington and jockey Mark Fahey Attendance 2006: 19,2122005: 19,902 Tote 2006: ?900,4212005: ?965,262 Bookmakers 2006: ?2,762,9072005: ?2,265,036
