VIDEO: Punters keep their eyes on the prizes at the Galway Races

Well, it’s that time of the year again. Stomachs are lined, livers are steeled, and wallets are stuffed for the summer party that is the Galway Races.

As a Galway man myself, it is always a bit of marathon. You mix work with the pleasure of spending a week in your home city — albeit your home city packed to the rafters with crazy racegoers.

With the Galway Arts Festival just ending and the Ballybrit extravaganza just started, these are always a heady few weeks in the West. Having arrived a few days early myself, I am already struggling before I’ve even started. Time waits for no man and you age an average of two years by spending a week partying in Galway during race week.

Not that it stops the crowds. It seems that, no matter what the year, whatever state the country is in, people make the effort to get to Ballybrit.

There may be more prestigious racing festivals, but you can’t argue with the numbers. Galway is simply huge. It is the second-biggest Irish racing festival in betting terms by some distance — only Cheltenham is ahead for Irish punters. An estimated €60m will be wagered over the week. Paddy Power said that, in the hour before the Galway Plate and Galway Hurdle, around 60,000 bets will be placed online.

“With the casual punters joining the purists for the slice of the action over the Galway festival, we’re set to be as busy as the city’s bars for the entire week. The competition between the punters and the bookies will be as fierce as ever,” said a spokesperson.

As always in Galway, it didn’t take long for the madness to kick off. Some things never change, Willie Mullins and Dermot Weld were winning early. It’s almost like a mantra here: “Back Weld and you’ll be grand.”

One inexperienced punter did back Weld, but was told by his friends to dump his betting slip as he was not in luck. After lobbing it into a rather sizeable bin full of discarded booze, food, and betting slips, he was told it was, in fact, a winning ticket. When I saw of him, he was being held by his legs by his friends and a Paddy Power employee in an effort to find it. Who says bookies don’t want punters to have a bit of joy? In the end, he found it, to the delight of interested onlookers.

Another lucky man was local newlywed Paul Murphy. He was riding the crest of a wave after getting married on Friday to Roscommon-born Caroline Corcoran. The couple were looking forward to a bit of Caribbean sunshine on their honeymoon, but a successful trip to Ballybrit could be the icing on the cake.

“If we have a bit of joy here, we could have a few more dollars to play with on the honeymoon, who knows,” said Paul.

“I wouldn’t know one end of a horse from another but it’s been a hell of a few days and I fancy my chances on taking a few bob out of here this evening.”

All in all, however, the punters didn’t have the best day at the office. Leon Blanche of Boylesports said it was a “great start” for the bookies, even if Weld was striking early.

“It’s been a great start to the week for us. Normally, when Dermot Weld has a winner at 6/4, it’s bad news for us but it turned out to be a great result. All the money was on Unicorn, it was the best-backed horse of the day,” Blanche said.

“Punters had a good start with Willie Mullins winning but overall we are definitely ahead, but there’s a long way to go.”

It might be long, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun.