Filey Bay and Alan O’Sullivan star at Galway on opening evening

Filey Bay justified market support in recording an emotional victory in the Connacht Hotel (Q.R.) Handicap at Galway.

The feature event on the first evening of the week-long festival at Ballybrit is restricted to amateur riders and it was Alan O’Sullivan – brother of the late Michael O’Sullivan, who tragically died in February following injuries suffered in a fall at Thurles – who shone in the saddle.

O’Sullivan had to weave a path to get a run on the JP McManus-owned gelding and when he did he fairly shot clear aboard Emmet Mullins’s 7-1 chance, with the winning jockey looking to the skies as he passed the line four and three-quarter lengths ahead of Mon Coeur.