Three British Raiders Remain in Galway Plate Field

A small but select team of British challengers remain in the hunt for the Galway Plate after the confirmation stage on Thursday for next Wednesday's feature handicap chase at the big summer National Hunt festival on the west coast of Ireland, writes Elliot Slater.

The valuable Grade A two-and-three-quarter-mile handicap is always a great spectacle at the enormously popular fixture, and with The Fonze heading the weights for this season's renewal, Paul Nicholls' Five Dream, the Nigel Twiston-Davies trained Grand Slam Hero, and Ian Williams' Invisible Man make up the British raiding party.

Of the trio it is Grand Slam Hero who comes into the race on the crest of a wave having completed a hat-trick of wins in tremendous fashion when leading at the last and then staying-on bravely to deny Putney Bridge in the listed Summer Plate Handicap Chase at Market Rasen last week. Set to carry a 7lb penalty for that success, Twiston-Davies' charge is nonetheless a force to be reckoned with in current form.

Five Dream ran well in decent company last term without managing to get its head in front on any of its last six starts, but the Nicholls-trained gelding tends to go well fresh and could still be a force to be reckoned with whilst Invisible Man, facile winner of a Market Rasen novice chase in June, seems to have turned over a new leaf and could go well at a big price.

For the home team, bookmakers seem wary of ante-post favourite Majestic Concorde and are taking no chances at current odds of just 6/1 for those who like to place a Horse race bet.

There's been a lot of talk amongst those who bet online about the confidence behind the chance of Willie Mullins' Themoonandsixpence, who was a progressive sort last season and appears to have been trained through the summer specifically with the Galway Plate in mind.