Loughrea N Roll improves to get off the mark in Listowel

A plan comes together for Platino Bianco

Robert has won on her in the past and both times I told him to be forceful on her, as at home nothing can go with her. She is a better work-horse than racehorse but, when she gets her head in front, she toughs it out really well. She likes having a bit of room, that's the key to her and Robert was able to fill her up. When she gets it her own way in front, she would die for you although it was hard work getting her to lead in the early stages today. It was nice to do it for the owner Breen White, who had four runners in the race and I had three of them. Tariff was the one we really fancied although the ground was probably tight enough for him. Getting any festival winner is great, but we had decided to work back from this one for Breen and ran everything we could for him. He comes for a few days and likes to have runners here.

Dragon Of Malta just loves it around Listowel

That is five wins at this festival which is an incredible record. To see the myriad of people here today is lovely and, win, lose or draw, we'll be back here again next year. Down south, this meeting is our Cheltenham. I joked with my daughter Sylvia that if he won again today, that Listowel would have to name a race after him, but she replied, 'no, it'll have to be a bar!'. This is wonderful stuff and he is a real horses for courses. It is quite incredible and, while the strict form lads say he needs heavy-heavy-heavy, jockey Shane Foley told us yesterday that it was just the track which suits him. We initially hit on Julian to claim 7lb last September, and he definitely gets his fractions right anyway. He knew how the race would pan out and had his homework done. The horse will have an easy week now and it is just a lovely story.

2026 is certainly Meriden's year

She has been busy with racing, but it was a big drop in grade. She was entitled to do that although we didn't know if we had pushed the boat out too far today by running her too much. It was me who wanted to run as she has been so well at home, and to be fair to Patrick (O'Brien) and Paul (Shanahan), they went along with it. Chris had a plan to be forward and to use the railing, as it is a front-runners track and she also has a tendency to lean left-handed. Once she bagged the rail, she was good and straight. Initially, we thought she would just win at a lower level, but she has kept stepping up all season. This morning, I entered her for a Group 3 at Saint-Cloud in October, so has that entry and an entry in a mares' sale at the end of December. We don't want to lose her, but if she makes money for her connections, that's good business.

Letmeentertainyou puts himself in shop window at Listowel

Morehampton relishes his spin around Listowel

O'Brien and Sheridan at double with Count Bezukhov