Five Legendary Wins That Defined Listowel's Harvest Festival Listowel's Harvest Festival is a week-long bonanza of racing for all tastes, with action both on the Flat and over jumps amid a real carnival atmosphere in the County Kerry town. The most valuable race run at Listowel is the Guinness Kerry Grand National. It is run on the Wednesday of the Harvest Festival over a distance of three miles and is worth €200,000 in prize money. The most famous Kerry National winner also went on to win the big one at Aintree — here we are recalling five famous wins at the Listowel Harvest Festival. Monty's Pass makes history The only starting point, really, Monty's Pass won the Kerry National at Listowel in 2002 for Cork trainer Jimmy Mangan, with Barry Geraghty riding. He went off a 9/1 chance and was always handily placed throughout the race before coming to lead at the second last and kicking on to win, with Putsometnby back in second spot. It was his 31st start over fences at the time and he had finished second in the Topham Handicap Chase at Aintree earlier that year. He would be third in the Munster National at Limerick a few weeks after his Listowel win and, then, Mangan put him away and gave him two more spins over hurdles in the spring of 2003 before he and Geraghty claimed a wide-margin win in the Aintree Grand National. His wins at Listowel and on Merseyside ensure he is forever enshrined in the fabric of both courses. McNamara's dream day Local trainer Eric McNamara will always recall the penultimate day of the 2024 Harvest Festival as he saddled an incredible 159/1 treble with wins for Frankendael, Mount Ferns and Cahirdown Boy. Based at Rathkeale just across the Limerick border, McNamara's name is long associated with Listowel. Incredibly, his stable has had five winners and six places from just 15 runners over three days at the Harvest Festival in 2024. Alliance pays off for Martin and Walsh Ruby Walsh won just about everything there was to win in his brilliant riding career and, in 2009, he teamed up with Tony Martin as Northern Alliance took out Listowel's flagship race. Already a winner as a beginner over fences at Listowel at the 2008 festival, Northern Alliance returned a year later and justified 4/1 favouritism under Walsh — the Gold Cup-winning rider at Cheltenham that same season as Kauto Star made history. The pair were headed jumping the final fence as Paul Carberry attempted to snare the prize on Royal County Star — also trained by Martin — but Walsh's partner wasn't for beating and rallied to edge the verdict from Church Island for trainer Michael Hourigan, with Royal County Star back in third. Katie Walsh not too Busy for a shock The Walsh family have done well at Listowel over the years. Katie Walsh won the feature race on Your Busy in 2014, a horse her brother Ruby Walsh also partnered to a hurdles success at the Kerry venue in 2015. The likes of Shanpallas for Charles Byrnes and Alderwood for Tom Mullins and Tony McCoy were amongst the favourites, with Katie Walsh partnering 25/1 poke Your Busy in the 2014 Kerry National. The horse had won the Killarney National earlier that same season but had been in and out of form in the interim. Katie Walsh had partnered him a couple of times previously, without success, but on this day, they were formidable, getting up strongly after jumping the last to deny Pass The Hat for David Casey and Arthur Moore. O'Neill delivers on Wrath Of Titans Katie Walsh isn't the only current female member of the RTE Racing team to win the big race at Listowel. Lisa O'Neill won back-to-back Kerry Nationals in 2016 and 2017 on Wrath Of Titans and Potters Point for Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud. The first of those came in her maiden attempt at the race as Wrath Of Titans defied relative inexperience over fences to score in an attritional renewal that saw only 10 of the 18 starters complete the course. Elliott declared post-race: "Lisa is a huge part of our team. As well as race-riding, she rides out, pre-trains, drives the horsebox and works in the office. She's a great team player and I'm delighted for her."
