Galway Festival preview: Ted Veale weighted to strike

Ted Veale looks weighted to provide trainer Tony Martin with back-to-back successes in the valuable Connacht Hotel Handicap over 2m at Galway today (18.50).

Martin saddled Quick Jack to land a gamble in the race 12 months ago, and Ted Veal has a similar profile to his stablemate and carries the same colours of owner John Breslin.

The eight-year-old had some smart form on the level earlier in his career, including when a cracking fourth to Tiger Cliff in the 2013 running of the Ebor Handicap at York off a mark of 97.

This gelding’s has since developed into a useful hurdler/chaser and won a beginners’ chase at this meeting last year.

Ted Veale’s recent efforts over the jumps suggest he is as good as ever, and he has been given a big chance by the assessor now returned to the level.

The son of Revoque is able to race off a mark of just 85, and that is 7lb lower than when last seen in action on the flat and a career-low.

It makes Ted Veale look a potential handicap blot, and his shrewd handler has clearly laid him out for this contest.

In the 7f handicap (18.20), Cenotaph can take advantage of what looks a lenient mark to open his account at the fifth time of asking.

The Aidan O’Brien trained colt shaped with bags of promise on his sole run as a juvenile when runner-up to Endless Drama in a 17-runner maiden at Naas, and the winner is a very useful sort who finished runner-up to Gleneagles in the Irish 2000 Guineas and is now rated 117.