Soft ground for day one of Galway Festival The Galway Festival begins today with an eight-race Flat card beginning at 4.10pm. The Connacht Hotel (Q.R) Handicap, worth 75,000 Euros, is the feature race on day one and goes to post at 6.45. The ground is now soft (Flat), and good to yielding for N.H. horses with the jumping action taking place from Wednesday to Friday. Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer told RTE Radio 1 this morning that 14mm of overnight rain had fallen by 7am, and probably another 3mm in a heavy shower since then. However, it’s expected to be mainly dry from 9am for the rest of today, and tomorrow, with a risk of light showers for Tote Galway Plate day on Wednesday. Leopardstown race on Friday afternoon and the ground there is good, good to yielding in places. There are showers forecast this morning, and the weather is to remain unsettled through the week.
