Countdown to Galway: Top Irish Trainers Ready for Action

The Galway Festival is just days away as the Irish racing fraternity prepares for seven days of thrills and spills at Ballybrit for one of the most eagerly anticipated meetings of the year.

The 2025 Galway Races will run from Monday July 28th until Sunday August 3rd, offering a mix of competitive jumps and Flat racing.

With day one looming closer, we are taking a look at some trainers in good form running into Galway.

BetVictor Betting Offer

Gordon Elliott

The Cullentra handler is not renowned for domination at Galway, though Gordon Elliott has rapidly landed himself a joint-record four wins in the famous Galway Plate, with Lord Scoundrel (2016), Clarcam (2018), Borice (2019) and Ash Tree Meadow (2023) helping him match Dermot Weld's tally in the feature race.

Typically for this time of year, Elliott is a little quieter than we've come to expect in the meat of the National Hunt season.

He is enjoying plenty of success with his summer team, however, and is approaching Galway with a very pleasing 18 per cent strike-rate from over 70 runners in the last month.

Noel Meade

Another staple of the Irish training ranks, Noel Meade has enjoyed more than his share of big-race successes and is a regular at the Galway Races.

The Co Meath-based handler perhaps doesn't have the armoury of days gone by, but he is still operating at a strong level and his pre-Galway stats are positive with a strike-rate of more than 18 per cent in recent weeks. Jesse Evans won the Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary recently, a race that has proved a striking pointer to Galway success in the past, and has a couple of engagements in Ballybrit.

Meade could also be calling on the likes of Golden Temple and Open To Question for the Listed Boylesports Handicap Hurdle.

Willie Mullins

As the years have progressed, Willie Mullins' focus on the Galway Races has grown and the champion trainer of Britain and Ireland is likely to have a decent sprinkling of horses heading out west.

The Closutton chief is typically quiet at this time of year, but that cannot be confused for any dip in performance levels and five winners from 10 runners lately embellishes that idea.

Bloody Destiny, Zenta Winter Fog and Gaucher are some of the names that could make the trip to Galway from his Co Carlow operation.

Joseph O'Brien

Last year Joseph O'Brien trousered just over €300,000 in prize money for his runners at Galway and we can expect the Piltown trainer to send more runners to Ballybrit now.

Last year's Galway Hurdle winner Nurburgring is set to take on the challenge of the Plate in 2025.

If he can master Ballybrit again, the five-year-old will become the first horse since Dermot Weld's Ansar to win both races, with Ansar bagging the Hurdle in 2001 and the Plate twice, in 2004 and 2005.

The JP McManus-owned Common Practice winner of a Grade 3 novice chase at Thurles in March, is also amongst the likely runners from the O'Brien stable heading for the Galway Races.