Andrew Slattery: my key contenders for the Galway Festival

Andy Slattery’s horses have been in good form all season, but now the results are starting to reflect that.  When Royal Hollow won her maiden hurdle at Ballinrobe on Tuesday evening, she was a fifth winner in 12 days for the affable trainer.  He ran just 15 horses in that time - that’s a strike-rate of 33 per cent.

“The horses were running well,” says Andy, “which is great, but we were having a lot of seconds and not as many winners. It’s nice that some of them are getting their heads in front now.”

The figures tell you that, since the start of April, Andy Slattery has had nine winners on the flat, and 13 seconds. From the end of March until the end of June, he had no winners over jumps, but he had seven seconds. Then it clicked, rat-tat-tat-tat-tat. Five winners in 12 days. And he is as versatile as he is prolific, flat and jumps, and all corners of the country.  

He won the bumper at Killarney last Thursday with Not Now Darling and, three quarters of an hour later, he won a one-mile-five-furlong handicap at Leopardstown with Cloud Seeker.

“It was nice that they both won there on Thursday,” says the trainer.  “We have always liked Not Now Darling, but she was making her racecourse debut at Killarney, so you never know for sure how they’re going to go.  She had never been on grass before, so we were delighted with her.  She’s owned by a first cousin of my mother’s, so it was important that she went well!  She’s a well-bred filly, and there should be a lot of improvement to come from her.”

Not Now Darling could go for a winners’ bumper now at Listowel.

“We were hoping that Cloud Seeker would go well at Leopardstown then after that.  He parked a little bit when he got to the front, but he got there.  He’s a big, backward horse, and he should come on again for that run.”

Cloud Seeker has gone up 5lb, taking his mark of just 75, which still looks a workable rating.  

Galway week has been a good week for Andy Slattery in recent times.  He has had some big days there.  He won the Colm Quinn BMW Mile in 2016 with Creggs Pipes, before the Rip Van Winkle mare went on to win the Group 2 Lanwades Stud Stakes at The Curragh less than a year later. 

He won the Listed Corrib Fillies Stakes at Galway with Planchart two days after Creggs Pipes’ win.  And when Bells On Her Toes won the caulfieldindustrial.com Handicap there last year, it continued Andy Slattery’s Galway run: at least one winner there every year since 2016.

“It’s a great week,” he says.  “The owners love it.  They love to have runners there, and they love to have winners there.  It’s a busy week, we go up and down every day, there’s still work to be done here, but it’s a week that we target when we have the right type of horse for it.”

He is looking forward to Galway this year, as usual, and he goes there with chances.

“We run a filly in the two-year-old fillies’ maiden on Tuesday, Abazaami, and we think that there is more to come from her.  We were happy with her run on her racecourse debut at Naas over five furlongs there a few weeks ago, and she has been working well since.  We think that the step up in trip will suit her too.”

Royal Hollow holds an entry in the the qualified riders’ maiden on Wednesday.

“She’s very talented,” says her trainer.  “We were delighted that she won at Ballinrobe on Tuesday.  She probably should have won before now, she is that talented, but we got a few things wrong.  We were jumping her off in behind, trying to settle her that way, but we just said that we’d allow her bowl away in front on Tuesday, and she seemed to enjoy that.  She settled well in front.  Hopefully she can take another step forward now with that win under her belt.  We don’t know how good she could be.”

Preparations is in the Guinness 0.0 Handicap on Thursday.

“Preparations has had three runs in maidens, and she has been given a mark of 68, which is ideal for that 0-70 handicap.  We hope that she can be competitive off that mark.”

Staysound Susie in the seven-furlong handicap on Monday, while Independent Expert will run in one of the one-mile handicaps or the seven-furlong handicap on Sunday among other.

“We thought that that ground would be too quick for Independent Expert at Killarney last week, but she handled it well and she won nicely.  She has run well at Galway in the past, and we know that she will be going into the meeting in good form.”