Ted Veale spearheads a Tony Martin trio as the Meath handler attempts to land his third successive win in the Connacht Hotel (QR) Handicap on the first day of the Galway Festival.
The classy jumper is weighted to strike in this sphere, even though he could only manage mid-division in the Irish Cesarewitch when last seen on the level.
He is joined by stablemates Spacious Sky and Encrypted Message, but this is ultra-competitive and cases can be made for the vast majority of the 19 runners, not least the Willie Mullins pair of Whiteout and Wood Breizh, top-weights Awesome Star and Eshtiaal, and Modem, who lurks dangerously at the other end of the handicap.
Mullins gives impressive Sligo winner Bachasson his next step up the ladder in the opening Galwaybayhotel.com & Radissonhotelgalway.com Novice Hurdle (5.15), but he takes on Zafayan, who kickstarts another Ballybrit assault for Dermot Weld.
The master of Rosewell House, who targets the meeting like no other and has been champion trainer here for 28 years in a row, attempts to extend his stranglehold on the Claregalwayhotel.ie (C & G) EBF Maiden with True Solitaire, a runner-up on his Gowran Park introduction.
Only Aidan O'Brien has broken Weld's dominance on this race since 2006 and he relies on expensive Tipperary failure Johannes Vermeer.
Weld and O'Brien lock horns again in the Claytonhotelgalway.ie Handicap with Tadaany and Cenotaph respectively, and again in the Colm Quinn BMW Handicap with Harasava and Loved.
The Weld-trained Defining Year gets into the Easyfix Rubber Products Handicap Hurdle on a lenient mark compared to his Flat rating, but he takes on last year's winner Beckwith Star, who struck off a much higher figure over fences on his latest appearance.
The McGettigan's INH Flat Race is invariably profitable for the Mullins family, with Tom saddling Matchaway this year and Patrick on board the Shark Hanlon-trained Another Cyclone.
Preview of day one of Galway Festival
