Tony Martin
pushed
Dermot Weld
all the way for Galway’s leading trainer title in 2013 with nine winners and while Artful Artist can continue that festival momentum today, Martin’s hope for the
€70,000 feature, Quick Jack, could wind up trumped by Gambling Girl.
Edeymi won the Connacht Hotel Handicap for Martin last year and even though he hasn’t appeared since starting an eye-wateringly short 7 to 4 favourite for the Boylesports Hurdle in January, Quick Jack could emerge as something of a blot in what is a treasured prize for the country’s top amateur riders.
A value each-way alternative though may be Gambling Girl who has looked something more like her old self in her last two starts and jockey Kate Harrington will be on a confidence high having had a first winner in England at Ascot on Saturday.
Jessica Harrington considered Gambling Girl a potential top-notcher as a novice hurdler, but the five-year-old's form tapered off dramatically until she won at Leopardstown recently.
Favourable ground
Gambling Girl was subsequently beaten behind El Salvador at Killarney but the quicker the ground around
Galway
the better. And she looks reasonably weighted.
Artful Artist has a fourth start over flights in the handicap hurdle and will have Barry Geraghty’s assistance. Since that last jumps start in April, the Martin runner has been in flying form on the flat – winning twice over seven furlongs and a mile. And in that context a mark of 102 today looks noteworthy.
