Familiar outcome as Witches lands opener at Galway

We kept her for Galway, after she won so easily first time up, we just thought she was alright,. We had her in for a lot of last season but we kept her as a novice, we thought she was a bit better than the average novice. You won’t get too many Zaraks now for jumping bred mares, it’s nice to have a filly going jumping by him. She did it well and she’s one that we think a bit of. It’s a pity Rich and Susannah can’t be here. We’ll up her in grade as best we can. I’d probably be looking at her as a Royal Bond-type filly. We might just leave her now. I can see her being a good mare in novice company for the whole season. I’d be looking at the long term rather than shorter term with her.

Timurshah brings up hat-trick with easy Ballybrit win

I’m delighted with him,. They are all good when you are going good and when they go bad then you’re only an eejit!. Conor gets on well with him. Once the horses are ready and they do what they’re told on them it works out sometimes. If it doesn’t work out it’s not their fault, it’s the horse, there is only so much they can do on them. He’s in again here on Friday. We’ll see how he is in the morning, that’s all we can do.

Trean wins opening Flat race of Galway Festival for Twomey

He had a very good debut, I think he’s a very good horse,. Obviously the stable was just under a cloud around Ascot time, into the Irish Derby, and we just took back with the two-year-olds and gave them a chance. He had the option of coming here on Sunday for the auction series maiden but I said to Billy if he’s the horse I think he is he should be running tonight. He’s in the National Stakes, he’s in pretty much everything. I think Bayside Boy is a very good stallion and I think this is a very good horse.

Comfort Zone wins Galway Day One feature under Derek O'Connor

It’s fantastic, it was a great ride from Derek. We fancied him in the race last year and he didn’t run as well as we had hoped. Probably getting a bit of room on the outside there, he got very sweet. The slower ground maybe helped him as well. He’s run well here at Galway in the past so you might see him back here at the weekend. He’s won a November Handicap and a couple of graded races over hurdles so he’s been a great servant for us. He’s been running for big pots for the last while and he’s been knocking on the door and threatening to win one. I’m delighted that he did it here today, to win the feature race here on the Monday night is very special and it sets up the week well. Derek is a fantastic rider and it was great to have him on board. It looked a bit messy during the race and into the dip it looked to be a rough enough race. Derek got a wide run around them. I’d have to see it again but a few of them ran a little bit below par, but that’s Galway.

O'Brien doubles up as Dancing Saxon justifies favouritism

Madbadanddangerous gets up late to win for Meade and Keane

He’s a nice horse. The ground was a help, it was easy ground which it was in the north the last day,. I said to Colin to try and ride him the same as Gavin (Ryan) did the last day, which worked out quite well, and he said it was spot on. He said he’d go further and two miles wouldn’t be a problem. We could maybe head for the Irish Cesarewitch or something like that, I don’t know if a three-year-old could win the Cesarewitch. Maybe he might. It’s worth a lot of money so we’ll go there. I would have kept him for Friday but he wasn’t going to get in. It was a good performance with the weight and we had the man of the moment. We’ll paddle on with the Flat for the moment. I’d say he’d jump hurdles, he’s a big horse, but we’ll see how far we can get on the Flat first. I’m delighted for Seamus (Hunt), unfortunately he doesn’t move around that much anymore but he gets a great kick out of watching them on the telly as well. He’ll be thrilled.

Teofil battles back to take Galway finale for Bolger

It was the same race, I wasn’t here for that!. The pace was a bit slow for him in Punchestown and it didn’t suit him too well. Willie’s horse won well anyway but he would have run a better race at Punchestown with more pace. He was kind of doing his own pace there today and it worked out well. I think he’ll stay well, I’m also hoping that maybe one day he’ll win the two-mile Champion Chase, when he gets better ground.