Galway Racecourse

Galway is home to Ireland's biggest summer festival. Seven days of competitive action make it the highlight of the year for many. The historic Galway Plate and the Galway Hurdle are the most coveted races of the week. There are  numerous notable and valuable Flat races during the Festival, including the Listed Corrib Stakes. In addition to the summer meeting, there is also two days of racing at Galway in September where the Listed Ardilaun Hotel Oyster Stakes is the main event. A further two-day meeting takes place at Ballybrit over the bank holiday weekend in October.

Galway Races Summer Festival

The Galway Festival is undoubtedly the highpoint of the summer season with seven great days and nights of competitive racing action. The meeting runs into the busy August Bank holiday weekend.  The seven-day extravaganza is a major social occasion and attracts the biggest crowds of the year from far and wide. Thursday’s Ladies’ Day is the best attended race day anywhere in Ireland. The famous Galway Plate dates back to in 1869 and is the feature race on the Wednesday while the Galway Hurdle is the big one the following afternoon.

The tote.com Galway Plate

The Galway Plate is a National Hunt handicap chase held during the Galway Festival in late July/early August and is the highlight of the summer chasing programme. It is a high-class event and is open to horses aged four years or older and is run over a distance of two miles and six furlongs. The race was first held in 1869 as part of the then two-day Galway festival. Life Of A Lord, trained by Aidan O’Brien and the Dermot Weld-trained Ansar are recent back-to-back winners while both Road To Riches and Carlingford Lough went on to Grade 1 success after their wins at Ballybrit.

The Guinness Galway Hurdle

With a total prize fund of €300,000, the Guinness Galway Hurdle is the most valuable National Hunt race in the calendar. It is held on the fourth day of the annual Galway Festival and is run over the minimum distance of two miles. It is another race with a rich history and was first run in 1913. In modern times, the Noel Meade-trained Pinch Hitter is the only horse to win the race twice in 1982 and again 12 months later. Michael Winters won back-to-back Galway Hurdles with Rebel Fitz and Missunited in 2012 and 2013 while Tony Martin also won the race in successive years with Thomas Edison in 2014 and Quick Jack in 2015.

Other notable race at Galway include:

Listed Arthur Guinness EBF Corrib Fillies Stakes

Topaz Mile Handicap

Guinness Handicap

Irish Stallion Farms EBF Ahonoora Handicap

Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle