a day ago
Smallest big-race field in a decade lines out for Galway festival feature
A field of just 14 runners for Tuesday evening's
Galway festival
feature, the €120,000 Colm Quinn BMW Mile, is the smallest for a decade.
Normally there's competition to make the maximum limit of 18 runners but this time the Day Two feature seems to underline broader trends.
Horse Racing Ireland
statistics for the first half of 2025 show that entries for flat races are down 7.8 per cent on the same period last year. The average field size for flat races is down 1.8 per cent compared to an increase for jumps races.
The prospect of a deficit for what's traditionally one of Galway's most fiercely competitive handicaps would have been unlikely even a year ago, when Mexicali Rose beat 17 opponents.
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A non-runner in 2018 meant Riven Light beat 16 rivals, but it requires going back to 2015 to see 14 runners led home by Hint Of A Tint. There were also 14 declarations in 2012.
With a hefty six-figure pot up for grabs, and the race's notable history, it smacks of a feeble turnout.
Last year's runner up Norwalk Havoc is back to try to go one better but off a 3lb higher rating. The 2023 winner Coeur D'or is back too, as is the course specialist Dunum, who was third that year.
The big Mile is a rare gap on
Aidan O'Brien
's CV and Jack Cleary takes 5lbs off the Ballydoyle hope Mississippi River. Tony Martin will be looking for an ease in the ground for his Irish Lincolnshire winner Orandi, who hasn't run since finishing third in the English Lincoln last March.
Big Galway handicaps often see the culmination of lengthy planning but Slieve Binnian hardly fits that category. He is the only one of the 14 runners with a pair of '1's' next to his name having landed a pair of €100,000 handicaps on his last two starts.
A win on Irish Derby-day was followed by a stylish success in Nasrullah Handicap at Leopardstown earlier this month.
Formerly with Michael Halford and Tracey Collins, the grey is in the form of his life and trainer David Marnane has made no secret of how he thinks this Galway test could be ideal for him.
Still, one negative is that Slieve Binnian has never run around Galway before and course form is always a plus in Ballybrit.
Tom Gibney's stalwart Imposing Supreme is a prime example with four course victories to his credit. On the back of a promising comeback effort at Killarney recently he can compete again off a mark of 76 in a later handicap.
Rampage is also a course and distance winner who goes in the finale. The form of his recent all-weather success was boosted in Gowran at the weekend.
The juvenile fillies' maiden has a rare roll of honour with subsequent classic winners Tahiyra (2022), Hermosa (2018) and Legatissimo (2014) all breaking their duck here.
Thenandnow and Amelia Earhart filled the frame behind Phenomenal Filly at Leopardstown and clash again. However, Paddy Twomey has a line to both through his newcomer Black Caviar Gold who holds a Moyglare entry. Twomey won this with Purple Lily two years ago.
