Joseph O’Brien considers double bid for Galway winner Comfort Zone

Comfort Zone could bid for a Galway Festival double at the weekend after getting up in the final half furlong to win the feature Connacht Hotel Handicap on the opening day.

Jody Townend had taken up the running on the Willie Mullins-trained Too Bossy For Us as the field approached the halfway point and upped the pace.

But the Joseph O’Brien-trained Comfort Zone was always prominent and as Townend stretched clear on the rail on the turn for home, Derek O’Connor laid down his challenge down the centre of the course and the 18-1 shot responded to his urging to get up and to win by three-quarters of a length.

O’Brien said: “It’s fantastic, it was a great ride from Derek.

“Getting a bit of room on the outside there, he got very sweet. The slower ground maybe helped him as well.

“He’s run well here at Galway in the past so you might see him back here at the weekend.

“He’s been running for big pots for the last while and he’s been knocking on the door and threatening to win one.

“I’m delighted that he did it here today, to win the feature race here on the Monday night is very special and it sets up the week well.”

O’Brien completed a double in the Clayton Hotel Galway Handicap when Dancing Saxon (13-8) scooted clear off the final bend and quickly put the race to bed to win by four-and-a-quarter lengths.

Trean (11-4) made all to come home a comfortable winner of the Eventus Irish EBF (C & G) Maiden.

In a race won by Eclipse victor Constitution River last year, the Paddy Twomey-trained son of Bayside Boy showed a smart turn of foot in the hands of Billy Lee to pull clear and win by the better part of five lengths.

Twomey said: “He had the option of coming here on Sunday for the Auction Series Maiden but I said to Billy if he’s the horse I think he is he should be running tonight.

“He’s in the National Stakes, he’s in pretty much everything. I think Bayside Boy is a very good stallion and I think this is a very good horse.”

Witches Familiar (13-8) could be stepped up to Grade Two level for the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse in November after maintaining her unbeaten record over timber in the Galmont Hotel & The Galway Bay Hotel Novice Hurdle.

The Willie Mullins-trained French recruit, who is from the family of Big Buck’s, hardly had to get out of first gear for Paul Townend as she galloped clear on the run-in to win by eight-and-a-half lengths.

“We kept her for Galway, after she won so easily first time up, we just thought she was alright,” said Mullins.

“We had her in for a lot of last season but we kept her as a novice, we thought she was a bit better than the average novice.

“We’ll up her in grade as best we can. I’d probably be looking at her as a Royal Bond-type filly.

“We might just leave her now. I can see her being a good mare in novice company for the whole season. I’d be looking at the long term rather than shorter term with her.”