Bookies take an early beating

Dermot Weld celebrated his 65th birthday in style in Galway yesterday by hammering the bookies early on.

The King of Ballybrit struck in the first race with Diplomat and took the third with Mustajeeb. Weld already looks set for another golden year at Ballybrit, to go with his nine winners from last year and his record- breaking 17 in 2011. By the time we got to the 6.45pm race, bookies were looking nervous.

“It’ll be a bloodbath if he wins this. It’s only one day in and we could already be looking at carnage. People just blind-back Weld and it works every year,” said Leon Blanche of Boylesports.