Snow Falcon bids for second Kerry National Snow Falcon will bid to land the Guinness Kerry National for a second time when lining up in the €150,000 highlight of the Listowel Harvest Festival next Wednesday. Trainer Noel Meade reports the 11-year-old gelding, whose 12 career wins have amassed half a million euro in prize-money, ‘in great nick’ ahead of the three-mile test he landed back in 2018. “Snow Falcon definitely runs and the more rain the better,” said Meade. “He’s won it before and has come right down in the weights. He’s in great nick and ran well enough in the Plate — it was a bit short for him.” The Patricia Hunt-owned gelding held a career high mark of 160 over fences but will race off a mark of 141 at Listowel having kept on into ninth behind Royal Rendezvous in the Tote Galway Plate. The Castletown trainer is also likely to be represented in the €80,000 Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle next Friday with Jesse Evans, fourth to Saldier in the Guinness Galway Hurdle, among a trio of entries. “We have Jesse Evans and Hes A Hardy Bloke who both ran well at Galway. If either of them turned up they would have a chance. “I’ve Cask Mate in it as well but it would be his first run for a long time and it looks like a hard ask so we might just give it a miss.” Cask Mate was a promising novice last season finishing second to Ballyadam in the Grade 1 Royal Bond but has been absent since disappointing behind Appreciate It at Leopardstown in February. Meade is waiting to see if the Gordon Elliott-trained Duffle Coat shoulders top-weight in the Liam Healy Memorial Lartigue Hurdle before finalising plans for the €50,000 feature on Monday. “Perry Owens is in the Lartigue Hurdle but if Gordon runs the top-weight he’d be 6lb out. We’ll see what happens and if the topweight came out he will run.” Meade’s dual-purpose string went through a quiet patch over the summer but have turned a corner with four winners in recent weeks and he added, “The horses are running well enough which gives you a bit of confidence.”
