Gordon Elliott enhanced a fantastic record in the Tote Galway Plate when Western Fold became his fifth win in the last 10 renewals of the race and, for local rider Danny Gilligan, it was a second win in the race, two years on from Ash Tree Meadow’s success.<\/p>\n
It was an eventful race, with a couple of horses all but left at the start, a few fallers and unseats, and some indifferent rounds of jumping but, for the winner, it was plain sailing.<\/p>\n
That ties in with the summer the six-year-old has had as he made the breakthrough over fences in a beginners\u2019 chase at Tipperary, on what was his sixth outing over fences, and followed up by winning the Mayo National at Ballinrobe.<\/p>\n
An extra 10lbs on his mark were no burden to him as he travelled like a dream this time, eased to the front before the turn for home, and had matters in control as he raced up the straight, chased hard by the remarkable Jesse Evans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really can\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Gilligan. \u201cI thought, when I won it two years ago, that that would be me, but to come back and finish second in it last year and come back and win in this year, it\u2019s unbelievable. I\u2019m lost for words.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to be riding in these races is a massive privilege and I can\u2019t thank Gordon and his owners enough for giving me the chance. Just delighted when it works out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has great luck in this race, which is a big help for us, and he\u2019s so easy to ride for. He leaves it up to us. He knows the story in these big races, that you could go out with a plan and it can change very quickly. There\u2019s no pressure going out and I can\u2019t thank him enough.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Explaining his mount\u2019s upsurge in form, he added: \u201cSince he\u2019s got his nice ground, he\u2019s really starting to improve with every run. I wasn\u2019t sure after the last day, when he got a bit of a hike for winning in Ballinrobe, but I knew he had a live chance, and he proved today that he\u2019s a top-quality horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cDays like this are what we dream of, and I just can\u2019t believe it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Runner-up Jesse Evans has raced at this track six times and counts a beginners\u2019 chase at the September meetings as his sole success. However, in the five runs at this meeting he has finished runner-up in two Galway Hurdles, been fourth in another, and now runner-up in a Galway Plate. Whether you view that as good fortunate or desperately bad, he is a remarkable horse, and surely a joy to own and train.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran a belter again,\u201d said his trainer, Noel Meade. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that he\u2019s been second in two Galway Hurdles and now a Galway Plate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just ran too free early today. Everything went right, we got away at the started where we wanted but every time he landed at a fence he wanted to go again. He just half ran himself into the ground, I\u2019d say. The last half furlong caught him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe ran a great race, jumped brilliantly, and got a great ride. I can\u2019t say a bad word about it at all. The 3lb he picked up at Punchestown might just have cost him a little bit too, but there you go. He definitely won\u2019t run in the Hurdle tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Down Memory Lane\u2019s lack of experience appeared to tell as he was unable to respond appropriately when Mark Walsh asked him up at many of his fences, while Nurburgring was in trouble early, with a mistake ensuring he remained off the pace and facing an uphill battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gordon Elliott enhanced a fantastic record in the Tote Galway Plate when Western Fold became his fifth win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-304690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114943863414781808","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}