Hewick on track to defend his Galway Plate crown Trainer Shark Hanlon will bid to win the Tote Galway Plate next Wednesday for a second consecutive year with Hewick. Although the defending champion has to carry topweight in this years renewal, his trainer says that a repeat bid was always the plan for his horse since his win at the festival last year. "Ah sure listen it was(repeat); I know that we have a lot of weight, we have topweight and everything but I am happy enough to go," said Hanlon. "Like usually when you have topweight, he is a graded horse in handicap company. He is giving a lot of weight away. There will be horses kept out of the handicap but you have a lot of good horses there with ten-and-a-half stone and less than eleven stone that if I wasn't in it they'd have a stone more. "We have to take our chance; it's a big pot; it's a great day and we'll be there, " the trainer added. After winning last years Plate, Hewick went on to take the Grade 1 American Grand National at Far Hills under Jordan Gainford.
