Perhaps in a couple of years time, apprentice jockey Gavin Ryan will look back at this year’s Galway Festival as a crucial point in his career.

He finished up as the leading flat rider at the meeting with five winners, combining with Dublin trainer Ado McGuinness to win feature races on Tuesday and Saturday.

Ryan rode Saltonstall to his second consecutive victory in the Colm Quinn BMW Mile, guiding the six-year-old from last to first, just denying Njord on the line. Connections of that Jessica Harrington-trained horse were unlucky to bump into an inspired Ryan again on Sunday, who this time teamed with Current Option to deny them again.

Ryan suffered a nasty fall at Dundalk in March, fracturing his L2 vertebrae which meant that he was in a back brace for much of the lockdown. The 20-year-old, who came through the ranks at Jim Bolger’s yard, is based with Donnacha O’Brien now and so has plenty to look forward to considering that trainer is already a Group 1-winning handler, after his Fancy Blue landed Nassau Stakes at Goodwood last week.

Surprise

If Ryan’s performance at Galway was something of a surprise, it was a case of same old over the jumps, with Willie Mullins sending out 10 winners. Paul Townend finished as leading jumps rider at the meeting by riding five of those winners but it was Mullins’ son Patrick who benefited most by riding Aramon to win the Guinness Galway Hurdle.

The 11-time champion amateur jockey was winning this race for a second time, having scored on Sharjah in 2018. That horse went on to make his mark at the highest level and Aramon looks like he has the potential to do the same.

Aramon previously ran in the colours of the Supreme Racing Club, which was banned from operating following its failure to respond to Horse Racing Ireland requests for information on ownership details. The club was alleged to have oversold its shares for 29 horses, which led to the set up of individual syndicates for each horse.

Elsewhere at Galway, the horse of the week was Princess Zoe, who did her own feature race double, scoring in Monday’s Connacht Hotel Handiap and then again in the Galway Shopping Centre Handicap on Saturday. With those wins added to her recent Curragh success, the Tony Mullins-trained mare earned just over €100,000 in two weeks.