Betting at Galway Races

A Winning Tip at the Galway Races?

"What do you fancy in the Galway Plate?"

One of the joys of the Galway Races is flicking through the colourful pages of the image-packed racecard with its free draws and exciting prize-winning opportunities; its beguiling betting hints; and its pulse-quickening promise of record-breaking Trios and Jackpots.

And then there's the punter's perennial dilemma: "Which horse should I back?" Agonising over selections. Balancing logic and intuition. Deciding whether to put your money on the newspaper nap, the leading trainer, the jockey in form, the stable whisper, the tip from a friend, or the horse that won the equivalent race last year - while all the time knowing that wherever you watch the race, be it in the grandstand or in a corporate hospitality suite, the person directly behind you will be cheering on the eventual winner as it thunders past the winning-post.

If only you could find out before the race who will be standing behind you during the race!

Studying form at the Galway Races

The Galway Races

Galway Summer Race Festival

The Galway Races 2008
(Monday 28 July - Sunday 3 August)

Galway Races

© by Gerard McLoughlin

Throughout Ireland people of all ages and occupations prepare for the Galway Races with a fervour that is almost religious in its intensity. Budgets are planned, holidays are arranged and business is scheduled to conform with the sacrosanct dates of the annual week-long festival.

More significantly, perhaps, commemorative coups are prepared, often with horses that have abstained reverentially from victory for the obligatory twelve months. Horses will piously avail of the special dispensation permitting them to triumph twice in the one week at this exceptional venue.

On Monday, traditionally the opening evening, the turnstiles begin to rotate and the devotional crowds stream in regardless of prevailing economic or meteorological constraints. Mohair suits, elegant silks and clerical collars commingle spontaneously with cloth caps, braces (suspenders) and stout brown boots.

As the familiar strains of 'The Galway Races' resound from the loudspeakers, the emphasis is decidedly on camaraderie and merriment. Profit may be a significant motive; but the real profit is measured not in euros but in pints, not in coups but in craic.

Old friendships are renewed, gossip is exchanged and tips are divulged in penitential whispers. Men and women who would ordinarily spurn the racing pages are suddenly privy to 'inside information'; and the bookmakers are dutifully thankful.

The weather in the west of Ireland may be notoriously changeable, but Galway race-goers are oblivious of even the most torrential downpour. Disdaining rain coats or umbrellas, many of them seek casual shelter under the elfin awning of the peaked cap or the printed headscarf.

On my first visit to the Galway Race Festival, I watched incredulously as men in bespoke suits and women in designer dresses stood in pouring rain while calmly trying to separate the compacted pages of their sodden race-cards.

One worthy devotee, with the demeanour of a belted earl, strode contemptuously through the driving rain in a grey lightweight suit; his only concession to the weather - a pair of Roches Stores carrier bags pulled up over his shoes and secured at the ankles by two hastily tied knots.

'The apparel oft proclaims the man', wrote the Bard of Avon. Shakespeare would surely have loved the Galway Races where 'all the men and women are truly players'.

RTE's Jim Fahy at the Galway Races