Three horses that can get Willie Mullins off to a flyer at Galway on Monday

Willie Mullins at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival

The Galway Festival kicks off on Monday and you can see our ante-post selections for the Galway Plate and the Galway Hurdle now. Willie Mullins is always the trainer to watch and the master handler is likely to have plenty of winners over the course of the seven-day meeting.

With that in mind, we’ve picked out his three best chances on Day 1. It would be no surprise to see him get off to a flyer and these three horses can help him do it. Check out our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

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4.50 Galway

Sysko makes his stable and hurdling debut in the opening novice hurdle and one would imagine he will be right in the mix. Mullins is particularly shrewd with his French purchases and this horse won his sole Flat start over two miles for Adrien Fouassier and may want further in time on that evidence. This looks like a good starting point however and it would be unwise to rule him out.

7.10 Galway

Lot Of Joy was a good winner of a Fairyhouse maiden hurdle before being well beaten in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and in a Grade 1 at Fairyhouse back in 2023. It was a good effort when third at the Curragh over 1m4f last time and the daughter of Camelot can build on that. She’ll need to improve on her sixth in this race last year but is entitled to do so off an 8lb lower mark this time around.

8.15 Galway

Cause For Comment has four half-siblings that have all managed to win and Mullins is always dangerous in Irish bumpers. In fact, he’s operating at a strike-rate of 35 per cent in this sphere so far this season and no one would be surprised if the four-year-old was to improve that here.

If you back any of our selections you can watch them live on the free Racing Post app or racingpost.com. Simply log in to one of your bookmaker accounts and click ‘Watch live’ on the racecards.

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