28-07-2025
Comfort Zone favourite for opening day feature at Galway Races
Galway's seven-day summer festival gets underway with a seven-race programme and Comfort Zone can land the opening day feature, the Connacht Hotel Qualified Riders' Handicap, for Joseph O'Brien and Derek O'Connor.
The six-year-old dual-purpose performer contested the two-mile-four Ascot Stakes on his most recent outing and had plenty of work to do from a wide draw. He also didn't enjoy the best of luck at a crucial stage and ran brilliantly to be beaten just three parts of a length behind Ascending.
From a decent draw, he should be able to race handily this time and, with stamina as a strong suit, it will be no surprise if he goes on from a long way out and tries to draw the sting out of his rivals.
The classy sort can land the spoils at the expense of Toll Stone and Too Bossy For us. The former is closely matched with the selection on old form, and he did exceptionally well to beat Mr Percy in a Flat handicap at this meeting in 2024, doing so from a wide draw. He is almost certainly better than his mark of 86 and can play a leading role.
Too Bossy For Us is an obvious candidate following his good run at the Curragh. Still quite lightly raced and representing Willie Mullins, who has won five of the last eight renewals of this race, his claims are clear.
The nap goes to Aviatrice, an all-weather winner who can put a first turf win on her card by taking the Clayton Hotel Galway Handicap for David Marnane.
Unraced until the October of her two-year-old season, she made little impact first time up but finished runner-up on her next two starts before getting off the mark at the fourth time of asking, just seven weeks after making her debut.
Off for almost seven months after that win, she made her return in mid-June at Limerick and ran a big race to finish runner-up to progressive stablemate Amemri. On her most recent start, she contested a competitive race at Leopardstown but enjoyed little luck in running and ran much better than the fourth-place finish might suggest.
It is encouraging that the third-placed Shelbiana won next time up and, with the selection's handicap mark left at 80, there is every reason to expect a bold showing. From a decent draw, she can lie handy and the stiff climb to the finish should play to her strengths.
Honeysuckle Rose is a live danger, and were Spanish Temptress to get called in from the reserves, the impressive Killarney winner would merit plenty of respect.
Rakki is of obvious interest in the Iggy Daly Easyfix Handicap Hurdle as he is making his debut for Willie Mullins having earned an opening mark of 105 for previous connections. The market will reveal expectation but, without the benefit of that, Prove Yourself is the one to side with.
Ross O'Sullivan's lightly raced sort won a maiden at Tramore and followed up with a decent effort on his handicap debut, from a 1lb lower mark than he runs off today. A recent promising effort on his Flat debut has teed him up for the this assignment and he makes plenty of each-way appeal.
GALWAY
5:10 Davy Crockett
5:40 Prove Yourself
6:10 Constitution River
6:40 Comfort Zone (nb)
7:15 Aviatrice (nap)
7:50 Bear Creek
8:20 Coutach
Next best
5:10 A Snow White Park
5:40 Rakki
6:10 Masaban
6:40 Toll Stone
7:15 Spanish Temptress
7:50 Desmond Castle
8:20 Faith Of Empires
