There are times when Aidan O’Brien would break your heart.

Only five went to post for the Colm Quinn BMW Listed Novice Hurdle which opened the card on day two of the Galway Festival, and yet only a quarter of a point separated the first three in the betting.

Looking ahead to the thetote.com Galway Plate and the Guinness Galway Hurdle – the twin features of this week’s Galway festival – Ruby Walsh talks to racing correspondent Tommy Lyons.

If ever a trainer fit the handle of this column, it is Damien English, the Balbriggan native operating out of Grougha Stables in Naul.

Clonmel’s six-race hurdle card proved a profitable one for favourite backers, with odds-on chances obliging in the first three races, but the feature event, the www.grahamnorris.com Memorial Handicap Hurdle, went to one of the outsiders, Time For Mabel.

Unfortunately, I’m missing the Listowel meeting as I’m still a bit sore after the injury I picked up in Killarney and need a little more time. Of course, I’d love to be involved, particularly in today’s Kerry National which looks another very competitive renewal.

We know there has been something of a cloud hanging over the Ballydoyle horses for a while now, with Aidan O’Brien reporting that the bug was “the worst we’ve had.’’

We know there has been something of a cloud hanging over the Ballydoyle horses for a while now, with Aidan O’Brien reporting that the bug was “the worst we’ve had.’’

When Dessie Scahill puts down his binoculars at the end of the Curragh Derby meeting this afternoon he will surely do so with a sense of real sadness.

Ruby Walsh is targeting the Galway Festival as he continues to recover from the broken leg he sustained at Cheltenham in March.

Life as a hurdler hasn’t been plain sailing for former high-class Flat horse Penhill, but the seven-year-old has a happy knack of producing the goods on the days that matter.

In keeping with other years, Willie wasn’t really keen on me riding this weekend, and when Lareena won it took a bit of pressure off everybody, so I’m sitting out the remainder of the week.

Barry Geraghty is set for a further three weeks on the sidelines after it was discovered he had sustained a hairline fracture of his shoulder blade in a fall at Killarney last week.

Robbie McNamara has enjoyed plenty of success at the Galway Festival, but yesterday was a red-letter day for the Newbridge, Co Kildare-based trainer as Cascavelle gave him a first winner on the Flat and first at this meeting in his guise as a trainer.

Barry Geraghty has endured a terrible run of injury in the past 12 months but as the 37-year-old prepares for his latest comeback, at the Galway Festival on Monday, he proclaims himself fitter and stronger than ever. And despite broken arms, fractured ribs and a punctured lung in the last year, he isn’t even considering retirement.

Irish Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power says that horse racing’s updated Non-Trier rule means that jockeys will be riding for punters and stewards rather than horses and their connections, and admits that riders will have to be harder than they would like and risk the futures of young horses, to avoid falling foul of the regulation.

Having looked likely to develop into a most frustrating sort, Swamp Fox is beginning to look like a professional winner, and the four-year-old produced another tremendous display to rout the opposition in the featured Liam Healy Memorial Lartigue Hurdle on day three of the Listowel Harvest Festival.

It’s day three of the Harvest Festival in Listowel, where the Liam Healy Snr Memorial Lartigue Hurdle is the feature, while there is also a six-race card on the sand at Laytown.

The recent tradition of the Galway Plate catapulting relatively unheralded young jockeys to public prominence continued yesterday as 20-year-old Donagh Meyler steered the Gigginstown House Stud-owned Lord Scoundrel to victory in the Ballybrit showpiece.

Enda Bolger led the tributes to JT McNamara after the former leading amateur rider died aged 41.

It’s one of biggest racing weeks of the year in the racing world with terrific domestic action at Galway as well as a stellar meeting at Goodwood. Here’s five things to keep in mind over the next six days.

Just the two rides for me again this afternoon, and Limini looks to have the better chance of the two. She was probably a bit disappointing at Aintree, but was too keen for her own good and got found out at the end of the race.

The action returns to Tipperary this afternoon, where Lieutenant gets the nap to end the meeting on a high for punters.

Seven chases form a tricky card at Sligo, where the nap goes to Sea Beat in the two-mile-five-furlong beginners’ chase.

Yesterday provided a well-deserved moment of joy in a year of heartache for trainer Mouse Morris as Rogue Angel fought back tenaciously to edge out Urano in a thrilling finish in the Kerry Grand National.

Day two of the Listowel Festival, and Rose Of Tralee can get punters off to a flyer in the opening fillies’ maiden.

I doubt that Dermot Weld engaged in anything even remotely approaching a Clive Brittain-like jig, but he must have at least allowed himself a wry smile!

Tomorrow’s action at the Curragh, which features the Palmerstown House Irish St Leger, brings Champions’ Weekend to a close, while the seven-day festival at Listowel gets underway with a very competitive card.

The action moves to Laytown this afternoon, where War Anthem, who has been running well all summer, and can earn overdue reward in the Gilna’s Cottage Inn Maiden.

The Mick Halford-trained Rayisa caught the eye in defeat in what looked a pretty hot maiden at the Curragh recently, and can be expected to improve enough to land the third race on this evening’s card at Galway.

A very difficult card at Down Royal this afternoon, but Morga looks worthy nap material in the Kerry Foods Rated Hurdle. Dessie McDonogh’s five-year-old looked a decent recruit to hurdling when winning his first two starts, and also when a close third behind McKinley at Galway last year.