Two horses to follow on Sunday at the Listowel Harvest Festival By Enda McElhinneyDay one of the seven day Listowel Harvest Festival starts on Sunday and there are seven races and part of an all jumps card to begin proceedings. The feature race is the Kerry Dairy Ireland Handicap Chase at 16:58, for which 13 runners are set to go to post and our expert has picked a pair to follow from the field. Selection: Jasko Des Dames Next Best: Drumgill De Bromhead looking to start the week with a bang Thirteen runners are set to go to post and it is only John Ryan who has more than one entry as he sends Drumgill, The Dara Man and Gaelic Arc into battle. With three in the race he no doubt has a good chance of landing the spoils, but there are a number of challengers for the win. So Scottish is switching back to fences for the first time in four runs, and Emmet Mullins will no doubt be hoping the first time blinkers can work for the JP McManus-owned gelding. However, one of the most notable entries is Henry De Bromhead’s Jasko Des Dames - could a mark of 129 be lenient for a horse who ran so well at the Cheltenham Festival back in March? Cheltenham form to come to the fore The best bet for the race is Jasko Des Dames. He was last seen finishing a long way back at the Punchestown festival, and whilst this was no doubt a disappointment, he is certainly better than that run, as was evident in March when he was a good fifth in the Grand Annual off a 2lb higher mark than what he is due to race off now. Had he not hit the fence two out at Prestbury Park there is every chance he would have finished closer than he did, in what is typically one of the most competitive handicap hurdles of the season, and given his relatively unexposed profile, racing here off a 2lb lower mark could prove a gift. He is still only a six-year-old and there is surely more to come. So Scottish also ran in the Grand Annual but finished just shy of 20 lengths further behind Jasko Des Dames and is only 3lb better off now. He is likely to need more than the application of first-time blinkers to turn that form around. Drumgill best of Ryan’s three With three in the race, John Ryan is the most likely trainer to give Henry De Bromhead something to worry about, and it is the other six-year-old, Drumgill, who can be most fancied to do this. He has had a fair amount of running for his age, which includes eight runs over fences to date. Of these, he has won twice while also finishing in the first three on four other occasions. He was most recently fancied to run well at the Galway festival following a good victory over hurdles in July, but having unseated at the first, it turned out to be a non-event. Provided jockey Daniel King can stay aboard for the entirety of the race, he should once more give a good account of himself, even racing off a career-high mark of 132.
