P F O'Donnell

Listowel Tue, 22nd Sep, 2026  Dragon Of Malta 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.

Listowel Mon, 21st Sep, 2026  Dragon Of Malta The last few times this horse won I was at the sales, but Kia Joorabchian (high-profile international owner) hasn't asked me to go to Tattersalls this time! . What can you say about this horse, but he is older so that gave us a bit of confidence at this trip. We had tried him over 1m2f as a three-year-old and it was quite obvious he didn't stay, but that is a long time ago and the track suits him here. He didn't break as sharp as he usually does, but I thought Julian did very well to get his position, without burning too much gas. Once he got the position, I watched it with confidence. He is in again tomorrow and has to come, unless something untoward happens, which I don't expect, so we're looking forward to it.