Galway punters pile on as Rachael Blackmore's mount is backed to win

A 50/1 winner of Monday’s feature, The Connacht Hotel Handicap, ensured the bookies came out ahead on the opening day of the Galway Races but a number of short-priced day two favourites could swing momentum back in favour of punters.

The Willie Mullins-trained Sirius was the shock result on day one, but the Closutton handler is set to field two red-hot favourites on Tuesday, and both have attracted support. Gaucher looks set to get punters off to a flier in the opening race and is now an odds-on 10/11 shot (from 5/4) as punters double up the Mullins hotpots, with Alpha Capture rated a 15/8 chance in the penultimate race.

Thecompanysergeant has also been heavily backed in the second contest for Rachael Blackmore and Denis Hogan. Having hit a high of 7/2, the seven-year-old is now just 6/4 to record a fifth career victory while Aidan O’Brien’s Bubbling (6/5) is a strong favourite in the first flat race of the evening at 6:25pm.

The day two feature, the Colm Quinn BMW Mile Handicap remains wide open with the Tom Gibney-trained Booyea heading the betting at 7/2 with Aido McGuinness’s Casanova the early mover at 9/1 (from 14/1).

Brian O’Keeffe, spokesperson for BoyleSports, said: “We escaped unscathed from day one at Galway thanks to an outsider winning the big race, but we might not be smiling after today. There are plenty of well fancied favourites on the card and the momentum building behind Willie Mullins winners could swing it back in favour of the punters.”