The feature race on day three of the Galway Races is the Galway Plate.
Tote Galway Plate Details (Handicap Chase, Grade 3)
Prize Money: €270,000
Distance: 2m6f111y
Date: Wednesday, July 29
Time: 18:40
The Tote Galway Plate is one of the highlights of the Galway Races and one of the most competitive handicap chases of the Irish racing calendar. Here are the key trends to consider ahead of the 2026 renewal.
– View our Horse Racing markets.
Tote Galway Plate trends
- There has been just one winning favourite in the last ten runnings – Royal Rendezvous for Willie Mullins in 2021.
- Three of the last eight winners were returned at 16/1 or bigger.
- Seven of the last ten winners carried 10st 13lb or less.
- The ages of the last ten winners were:
- 6-year-olds: 2
- 7-year-olds: 4
- 8-year-olds: 3
- 9-year-olds: 1 (the only winning favourite)
- Four of the last seven winners had won on their previous start. Of the other three:
- one was beaten in a photo finish,
- one finished third on the Flat,
- one was unplaced in a hurdle race.
- Four of the six horses that had not won on their latest start before landing the Plate had made that previous appearance at Punchestown.
- Seven of the last ten winners had last raced between 57 and 98 days before the Galway Plate.
- Gordon Elliott has trained five of the last ten winners.
- Six of the last ten winners were trained in County Meath.
– Galway Hurdle Preview (Thursday).
Horses with the strongest statistical profiles
- Will The Wise
- Reverend Hubert
- Barry Lyndon
- Ol Man Dingle
Selection: Will The Wise (Gavin Cromwell)
Ahead of the Bar 1 Betting Troytown Handicap Chase last November, I nominated Will The Wise as a horse to follow when he was rated 136.
He finished fourth in the Troytown before taking a significant step forward in the spring. He was runner-up in the Sun Racing Plate Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival before going on to win the Randox Topham Handicap Chase at the Aintree Grand National Festival off a mark of 143.
He is set to line up in this year’s Galway Plate off a mark of 148, but I still believe there is further improvement to come, making him the one to beat.
