Hefty burden for Ansar’s Plate hat-trick bid

DERMOT WELD’S Ansar heads the list of 45 horses entered for the valuable William Hill Galway Plate on August 2.

The popular 10-year-old has won the last two renewals, beating Risk Accessor in 2004 and Ursumman in 2005, but he will have to shoulder top weight of 11st 10lb when seeking his hat-trick next month.

Weld hopes Ansar can provide him with a fifth win in the race since Kiichi’s success of 1990, and explained he had been expecting such an impost following his charge’s two previous successes.