Monty`s honours

The nearly horse, Monty`s Pass, finally made it to the centre of the spotlight in yesterday`s Guinness Kerry National, a race that more than lived up to its National tag.

The Listowel festival feature was incident-packed, with seven fallers, three jockeys ruled out for the rest of the day and two horses killed.

The gossip before the first chase of the festival was that the fences might be nearly as firm as the ground and it didn`t take long to find out for sure.

Four horses fell at the first, including Colm`s Rock, who was destroyed after breaking a shoulder. At the second, Temony fell and subsequently had to be put down in the stable yard.

The Galway Plate winner, Rockholm Boy, was another to fall at the first, as was the English raider Gladiateur, whose rider Norman Williamson was stood down for 24 hours with a bruised shoulder.

'The hardest fences I`ve ever seen here,' declared Monty`s Pass`s trainer Jimmy Mangan. 'Very stiff and there to be jumped,' was the verdict of Mick Fitzgerald, who fell at the last on Torduff Boy.

Which is what Monty`s Pass did with panache. In the past, Mangan`s runner had finished runner-up in the Galway Plate, Liverpool`s Topham Trophy and last year`s Kerry National.

Barry Geraghty drove him past General Claremont when that English raider was slow at the second last and hard as the 20 to 1 outsider, Putsometnby, tried, a two length gap remained at the line.

Mick Kinane picked up a one-day ban for careless riding after Sorcerous` winning return to action in the first.

Bookmaker turnover was up for the first time this week, with a total of €1,949,168, up over €60,000 on last year. The Tote, however, was down, with €479,762 comparing to €508,585. No crowd figure was available.

Apprentice jockey Jonathon Gooney was found dead on Tuesday night in his flat in Kildare town.