O'Sullivan hoping for more success at Harvest Festival Ross O'Sullivan struck with his first runner at Listowel's 2025 Harvest Festival when Bythesametoken took yesterday's feature, the Kerry Dairy Ireland Handicap Chase, and is looking forward to Thursday's Lartigue Hurdle which he won last year with the Tommy Ward-owned Eagles Reign. In conversation with journalist Dave Keena, he reflected on last year's Lartigue victory and gave an update on his two intended runners in this year's renewal. "Listowel was fantastic for us last year. We'd a couple of winners and all the horses ran great. "The Lartigue was an exciting race because Eagles Reign made the running and jumped from hurdle to hurdle. The ground was pretty soft which he loves but when he turned in was he going to keep going, that was the excitement of it. "Tom Harney gave him a great ride in front, he'd already been second on him at Cheltenham in the Fred Winter and the horse just toughed it out really well. "The idea after Cheltenham was to go to Listowel with a run on the Flat beforehand. It made sense, a good pot for four-year-olds only and we were just hoping to get the rain and it did come, as it had done at Cheltenham. "Tommy Ward is a great owner. He was there with all his pals and there was great excitement after the race. "He's been going to Listowel for a long time. He probably got as much of a kick out of that as he did when the horse ran so well at Cheltenham. "Tommy lives for racing. He's a good businessman but he's not a golfer, he's not into any other sports, it's work and racing. "When he comes home in the evening, he watches his racing, he races all the time and brings a few pals with him. He eats, sleeps and breathes it! "That feeds off to us and when he gets such a great kick out of it, we get a great kick out of it too. "He just enjoys every part of ownership and loves his horses. We were all together and the roars and shouts down over the last hurdle, it was as good as having a winner anywhere. "I remember from going racing and from my riding days that the Lartigue was just a special race with a great name on it. It holds a lot of prestige, so to win it was fantastic and there's a picture of it up on the wall of the house! "We've two horses for the Lartigue this year. We've a horse for Tommy called Butter Fingers who won his three-year-old hurdle last year and has been consistent throughout the year. He's a big horse who loves a bit of soft ground and will eventually jump a fence. He goes with his chance and more rain would help. "And we have Slurricane, owned by Eleanora Kennedy. He ran well to be fifth in the Fred Winter this year and likes a bit of an ease in the ground. He's had a run on the Flat, so he's had a similar prep to Eagles Reign last year. "Whether lightning will strike twice, I don't know, but it's great to be going there with two that have chances."
