Under The Radar: Eric McNamara's five to follow at Listowel

Eric McNamara and the Guinness Kerry National have previous together.  It was in 2007 that the Rathkeale trainer put the saddle on Ponmeoath, legged Paddy Flood up and sent the pair of them out to win the feature race at the Listowel Festival.  Then a year later, he repeated the feat.

“Ponmeoath was such a lovely horse,” says the trainer now.  “I remember Barry Geraghty riding him to win a handicap chase at Cork, he got off him and said, he’s not the best horse I’ve ever ridden, but he’s one of the nicest.  And that was Ponmeoath.  He was just a lovely horse to have anything to do with.”

Four years after Ponmeoath’s second Kerry National, Eric McNamara was back in the winner’s enclosure again when Faltering Fullback stayed on strongly on the heavy ground to land the prize.  And he was in the runner-up spot as well, because Faltering Fullback’s better-fancied stable companion Questions Answered chased him home to complete a 1-2 in the race for the trainer.

“I’d love to go and win it again.”

Big week coming up for the trainer.  The Listowel Harvest Festival is always big.

“It’s a meeting we like to target all right.  Listowel is only about 40 minutes away from us here, and we have a lot of owners from Limerick and Kerry who like to have runners at the track.”

Apart from Limerick, Eric McNamara has had more winners at Listowel than at any other racecourse.

“I'm not sure that there is a typical Listowel-type horse,” says the trainer.  “You need a horse with pace though, that’s for sure.  You see them at the two-and-a-half-mile start, for example, in front of the stands. They start off and they go straight up past you to the corner.  You need a horse with pace to be able to lie up with them.”

And course form is no liability when you go back there.

“We’ve been trying to buy some of those older horses in recent years, and we haven’t been doing too badly with them.”

Sure enough, he won the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival in 2022 with the rejuvenated Real Steel, a victory that was all the more special because he was ridden by the trainer’s son Conor.  Real Steel then went on to win the Munster National in 2024 as a sprightly 11-year-old.  

McNamara bagged the Munster National again last season with the 10-year-old French Dynamite, who was having just his second run for the trainer.  And he was chased home by his new stable companion Weveallbeencaught who, similarly, was racing for just the second time for his new yard, to complete another 1-2 for the trainer in another big staying handicap chase.

French Dynamite heads up his team for the Kerry National on Wednesday.

“French Dynamite is in great form,” says his trainer.  “We had to miss Aintree because he had a bruised foot, which was a pity but, after that, we said that we would train him for the Kerry National.  We’re very happy with him.”

The Kentucky Dynamite gelding won’t be flying the McNamara flag alone in the Kerry National, mind you.  Eric McNamara has five entries at present and, all going well, they will all run if they get in.  Doctor Ken and Look To The West are both safely in the race.  Weveallbeencaught is first reserve, so hopefully he will get in too.  Hermino is number 25 on the list, he may not make it into the first 18.

The Kerry National team is backed up by a strong representation from Eric McNamara throughout the whole week.  

“It’s so competitive, it’s never easy to have a winner at Listowel, but we go there with a few chances.  We’re looking forward to it.”

Race: Kinisla Cheestrings Irish EBF Mares Hurdle (2.48, Sunday).

Fourth behind subsequent Cheltenham bumper winner Celestial Tune in a mares’ bumper at last year’s Listowel Festival on her racecourse debut, she was impressive in winning her maiden hurdle at Roscommon last month on just her third run over hurdles.  A sister to Dream On Baby, from the family of Wichita Lineman and Rhinestone Cowboy, she is only five and has raced just three times over hurdles, so she has lots of scope for progression.

McNamara says: “She’s a good mare.  She has improved with every run and we’re looking forward to seeing how she goes.  It would be great if she could get the week off to a good start.”

Race: Guinness Kerry National (4.15, Wednesday)

He ran a cracker in the Kerry National last year to finish third on his first run for Eric McNamara, and he followed up by winning the Munster National a month later.  He is 11 now, but he obviously retains all his enthusiasm for racing, and he warmed up for this with a good run over hurdles at Galway two weeks ago.  That was his first run since last December, and it should bring him forward nicely for Wednesday’s race, which has been on his radar for a while.

Race: Guinness Kerry National (4.15, Wednesday).

He won a handicap chase at Kempton in March on his final run for Olly Murphy, keeping on well to beat Fever Dream by three lengths, and Fever Dream went out and won easily next time at Warwick.  He is now 7lb higher than he was at Kempton.  Doctor Ken will get to race off an Irish mark of 137 on Wednesday, just 5lb higher than the British mark off which he won at Kempton.  Bought for £47,000 by Eric McNamara at the Goffs UK Spring sale in May, he is 10 now, but he has raced just eight times over fences and, owned by Real Steel’s owner Tadhg Moynihan, we know how good his new trainer is at getting the best out of new recruits.

Race: Ballymore Handicap Hurdle (3.25, Friday).

Winner of his maiden hurdle at Limerick’s Christmas Festival last December, he ran a big race to finish a close-up fifth in the Grade 1 Top Novices’ Hurdle at the Aintree Grand National meeting in April.  He is only five and he has raced just five times over hurdles, so there could be a fair bit more to come from him this season.

Race: Handicap Chase (Saturday)

Winner of a handicap hurdle at Killarney in July off a mark of 100, he kept on well to take fourth place in a handicap chase back at Killarney last month off a mark of 107.  That was his first chase and, another five-year-old, he has the potential to go higher than 107 now over fences.