The Galway Races

If you've never been. Go. So many people I know this week are going, and I couldn't be more jealous. If you're not into gambling it doesn't matter. You will still have an unbelievable time. I would recommended going to Galway anyway, but when the festival is on the place just comes to life. You can just go to take in the atmosphere in and around Ayre Square at night. Every club is hopping, everyone is your best friend, there is just a feel-good factor about the town. However, if you are there to gamble, the games in Eglinton casino are usual quite juicy around the festival, full of people who may have had a Guinness or five too many. Then of course there is the Races.

Galway is the only place I have ever gone to horse-racing. This of course means I havn't got much to compare it to. However the reason I don't want to go anywhere else is, I just feel it will be a let down. Of course it can be quite tough to win, the bookies generally like Galway. However the buzz in the crowd, using what's left up of your voice screaming your horse's name as they come up the hill is something you just need to experience. You could be standing beside someone with 10e or 10,000e on a horse in the crowd, but the expression of escalation as the horse edges towards the finish line in first place across the punters face is the exact same. 

The first time I went to Galway was when I was 16, a friend and I booked into the Clarion hotel over-looking the race track. Two King Size beds, a couch in the room, we couldn't believe it. Were we staying within our means? Nope. But we thought we'd do it in style. We got down on the Friday morning, after playing a few 5e sng's on the bus on the way down, what ballers we were. We both had pretty much every penny to our names with us, (bear in mind we were 16 so wasn't millions exactly) and we were coming home broke or rich in our eyes. After getting breakfast into us, we went back to the hotel with the intention of catching the first race at 2pm. I gave Shane 300e belonging to me, and took 300e off him so as we would have money for the weekend regardless of the result. Got into the races, and we had entered our version of heaven. We seen Ruby was riding a fav in the first race, so naturally we lumped on. I mean I had backed him at the start of the week in the bookies at home, and he romped home, obviously would do the business down here aswell right? Not quite, he fell jumping the last fence, the whole crowd let out a gasp, needless to say he was heavily backed. Unfortunately it set the tone for the day, after 6 races I hadn't picked a winner. I'd bearly even encountered a sweat. 

The bulmers we had been drinking thanks to our top notch (Not really, they were terrible, will try find a pic) IDs was starting to go to my head. The last race of the day was a 6 furlong, 7 horse race, novice handicap. Why would anyone back this? It seemed like a good idea, so Shane's 300e was swiftly removed from my wallet and 200 of it placed on the fav at the nearest tote. I mean they were taking betting without my horse so it couldn't lose. Well, it didn't even get close. Dead last. Rigged! We left pretty down, however, Shane told me when we got back the the hotel he'd also backed with my money on the last race.... On the 2nd fav. Also got nowhere near. We couldn't help but laughing and decided to drown our sorrows with the last of our money and headed into town and ended up having one the best weekends I can remember, even though our dreams of heading home rich had been dashed!

Random Video of the kind of banter around the festival!

Just a quick note on the poker front, have decided to end my stake with the TagTeam who were nothing but good to me. However with my decision made now to go back to college, I need to concentrate on working a lot and saving money so won't need to do crazy hours when I get back. I still plan to get sessions in on my own dime from time to time, and will still get regular updates in, just feel I couldn't offer what is needed in a full-time stake.