Focus on top connections at Galway as JP McManus looks to have strong hand

Horses trained by Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott, along with a number owned by JP McManus, take centre stage at Galway, a sure sign that the tempo of the winter jumps campaign is beginning to quicken.

The mares' maiden hurdle (1.05) could boil down to a duel between the Mullins-trained course-and-distance bumper winner Kalanisi Og and Elliott's Wexford bumper winner Mount Ida, a former point-to-point winner who has the benefit of a previous run over hurdles.

Elliott provides two of the main players in the beginners' chase (1.40) and Battleoverdoyen, who looked a top-class novice hurdler until a Cheltenham flop in the Ballymore, should prove too strong for stablemate Galvin and Noel Meade's runner Cap York.