# Listowel Harvest Festival 2026 Tips: What Wins the Kerry National

_Listowel Harvest Festival 2026 tips: the Kerry National's trends, the seven-day shape of the meeting, and where the best bet lands._

*Source: [https://stablebet.co.uk/racing-news/listowel-harvest-festival-tips/](https://stablebet.co.uk/racing-news/listowel-harvest-festival-tips/) · last updated 2026-09-15*

## The festival in one screen

**Listowel's Harvest Festival opens Sunday 20 September 2026: seven days of racing on the Island beside the River Feale, Ireland's joint-longest meeting alongside Galway.** This page is where our tips for the meeting live: how the week is built, what wins its big race, and where the best bet lands once this year's field is declared. The Wednesday centrepiece is the Guinness Kerry National, Ireland's most valuable handicap chase; Friday is Ladies Day, by some distance the week's biggest crowd.

Nearly 100,000 people came through the gates across the 2025 running, 99,610 in total and up 4% on 2024, a scale that only Galway beats among Irish festivals. Two of the seven days, Monday and Tuesday, are all-Flat cards; the rest, Sunday through Saturday around them, are National Hunt.

**In this guide**

- [Seven days, one big Wednesday: how the festival breaks down](#the-week)
- [What wins the Kerry National: the trends](#what-wins-it)
- [The approach, and where to bet](#tips-and-where-to-bet)
- [Frequently asked questions](#faq)

For the festival hub and the countdown, see [Listowel Harvest Festival](/festivals/listowel-harvest-festival/). For the day-by-day schedule and TV coverage, see the [race-times guide](/racing-news/listowel-harvest-festival/). For the full week-by-week story, the [Listowel Harvest Festival guide](/irish-racecourses/listowel/listowel-harvest-festival-guide/). For the week's offers, [Listowel Harvest Festival offers](/bookmakers/listowel-harvest-festival-offers/).

A word on what this page is and is not. This far out there is no live AI Lab card for this specific meeting: the model's predictions publish once a day's runners are declared, not days ahead of a fixture. Check the [AI Lab's daily card](/ai-race-predictor/today/) once the festival is live, or the [track record](/ai-race-predictor/track-record/) for how the model performs generally in the meantime. The trends below narrow a big, competitive Irish jumps field, they are not a forecast, and no page on this site will tell you a system beats the bookmaker's margin.

## Seven days, one big Wednesday: how the festival breaks down

Listowel grew from a two-day meeting to seven in 2002, and the week now mixes Flat and jumps racing rather than running as a single-code festival. The established recent pattern, drawn from the 2024 and 2025 cards, puts the feature races here:

| Day | Code | Feature race |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | National Hunt | Kerry Dairy Ireland Handicap Chase |
| Monday | Flat | John McGuire Handicap |
| Tuesday | Flat | Listowel Stakes (Listed) |
| Wednesday | National Hunt | Guinness Kerry National (Grade 3) |
| Thursday | National Hunt | Lartigue Hurdle (Listed) |
| Friday, Ladies Day | National Hunt | William Hill Handicap Hurdle (Listed) |
| Saturday | National Hunt | Charlie Chute Memorial Handicap Chase |

Treat that as the recent pattern rather than a fixed rule: the meeting's own preview material is explicit that the exact allocation of feature races to days can shift from one year to the next, so check the declared card once entries are out rather than assuming this table repeats exactly.

### The Guinness Kerry National

The Kerry National itself is a Grade 3 Handicap Chase over three miles, run every September. It is worth EUR200,000 in total, EUR120,000 to the winner, and it carried Irish racing's old "Grade A" handicap label up to and including 2022 before the same race became Grade 3 under the current system from 2023, a relabelling rather than a change in the test itself. The 2025 renewal ran to 18 runners, and recent fields have generally been big and well stocked rather than a small, easy-to-read handicap.

Two horses give the race a following well beyond Listowel. Monty's Pass won the 2002 Kerry National at 9/1 for trainer Jimmy Mangan and jockey Barry Geraghty, then went off 16/1 for the following spring's Aintree Grand National and won that by 12 lengths. Flooring Porter, the 2024 winner, had already won two Cheltenham Stayers' Hurdles (2021 and 2022) before adding a big-field Irish handicap chase to the résumé. Neither result was predictable from the other; they are simply the two names that made Listowel's Wednesday a story outside Ireland.

### Ladies Day and the rest of the week

Friday's Ladies Day is the meeting's biggest day by attendance, drawing a crowd in the high twenty-thousands in recent years, built around the William Hill Handicap Hurdle and the McElligotts Kia Best Dressed Lady competition. The two Flat days either side of the Wednesday, Monday and Tuesday, get comparatively little betting-media attention next to the National Hunt cards, but Aidan O'Brien and Joseph O'Brien have both used the meeting's Flat maiden races to debut horses that went on to better things, so the form from those two days is worth a second look rather than skipping straight to Wednesday.

## What wins the Kerry National: the trends

Ten years of Kerry National results is not a large sample by the standards of an Aintree or a Cheltenham roll of honour, but the pattern that does hold is about the connections more than any single running style or trip.

### Kerry National: recent winners

| Year | Winner | SP | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Spanish Harlem | 16/1 | Danny Mullins | Willie Mullins |
| 2024 | Flooring Porter | 6/1 | Keith Donoghue | Gavin Cromwell |
| 2023 | Desertmore House | 11/1 | Ricky Doyle | Martin Brassil |
| 2022 | Busselton | 13/2 | J J Slevin | Joseph O'Brien |
| 2021 | Assemble | 9/1 | S Fitzgerald | Joseph O'Brien |
| 2020 | Cabaret Queen | 6/1 | Paul Townend | Willie Mullins |
| 2019 | Poker Party | 14/1 | Rachael Blackmore | Henry de Bromhead |
| 2018 | Snow Falcon | 6/1 | J Moore | Noel Meade |
| 2017 | Potters Point | 8/1 | Lisa O'Neill | Gordon Elliott |
| 2016 | Wrath Of Titans | 7/1 | Lisa O'Neill | Gordon Elliott |

Source: listowelraces.ie's official roll of honour and the HRI result for each year. listowelraces.ie's own published list reverses the trainer and jockey credited for the 2024 winner; the table above uses the corrected attribution (Gavin Cromwell trainer, Keith Donoghue jockey) per HRI's race result and subsequent race reports.

No single yard has taken over the race. Willie Mullins, Joseph O'Brien and Gordon Elliott have each won it exactly twice in the ten years above (Mullins with Cabaret Queen in 2020 and Spanish Harlem in 2025, O'Brien with Assemble in 2021 and Busselton in 2022, Elliott with Wrath Of Titans in 2016 and Potters Point in 2017), and no other trainer has repeated. That spread across three of Ireland's biggest jumps operations, with no one stable dominating, is the closest thing to a reliable pattern the race offers: the strength and recent form of the yard behind a runner has mattered here more than any particular running style or trip. On jockeys, only Lisa O'Neill has ridden more than one of the last ten winners, both for Gordon Elliott in 2016 and 2017.

On price, the last ten winners returned everything from 6/1 to 16/1, with three of the ten (2025, 2023, 2019) going off at 11/1 or bigger. Monty's Pass (2002, outside the table above) won it at 9/1 before landing the following year's Grand National, and 2024 winner Flooring Porter had already won two Cheltenham Stayers' Hurdles.

None of this predicts a winner on its own, and a ten-year sample is short enough that a single future result can reshape the picture. What it does say is that the Kerry National rewards a fancied runner from one of the meeting's leading Irish yards over a longshot from a smaller stable, and that the field is deep and competitive enough that the bookmakers' own pricing, not a trend on this page, is still the fairer starting point for judging any individual runner's chance.

## The approach, and where to bet

### How to approach the Kerry National

There is no live pick published on this page. The pattern in the previous section, a fancied runner from one of the meeting's leading Irish yards ahead of an unfancied outsider from a smaller stable, is a way to narrow an 18-plus-runner field, not a system that guarantees a return. In a field that size the each-way terms matter as much as the selection itself: work the both-ends-covered maths through the [each-way calculator](/betting/calculators/each-way/) before committing, and see [each-way betting explained](/betting/bet-types/each-way/) if the terms themselves need a refresher. If you are pricing up the market yourself rather than taking the first number offered, [understanding odds](/betting/beginners/understanding-odds/) covers how to read a fraction against the bookmaker's built-in margin.

### Where to bet on Listowel

The [Listowel Harvest Festival offers](/bookmakers/listowel-harvest-festival-offers/) page compares what our verified partners offer for the week. Two things matter more than a headline free bet in a big-field handicap like the Kerry National:

- **Extra each-way places or a Double Result / First Past the Post payout.** In an 18-plus-runner chase, a fourth or fifth place paid, or a payout for the horse that leads home even if it is caught close to the line, turns a place bet from a long shot into a fair one.
- **Best Odds Guaranteed on Irish racing specifically.** Not every UK-facing bookmaker extends BOG to Irish cards on the same terms as British ones, and Irish prices can move between the morning and the off once the going firms up, so check the Irish-racing small print rather than assuming a UK BOG offer travels across the water.

For a wider view, [best free bet offers for horse racing](/bookmakers/best-free-bet-offers/) and [the best bookmakers for horse racing](/bookmakers/best-bookmakers-horse-racing/). For the model's general record against the market, rather than a Listowel-specific card, see the [AI Lab's track record](/ai-race-predictor/track-record/); for what a quoted price actually means once the bookmaker's own margin is stripped out, [how to read the odds](/ai-race-predictor/lab/understand-odds/).

### After the meeting

Each day's finishing orders and starting prices land in the meeting's results hub as the cards finish; the [Listowel Harvest Festival hub](/festivals/listowel-harvest-festival/) links the current edition.

### Responsible note

Seven days of racing and a EUR200,000 feature race is a reason to enjoy the week, not a reason to chase a bigger stake than planned. Set what you are prepared to spend before the Wednesday and treat it as entertainment: the odds favour the bookmaker over time regardless of how good a pattern on this page looks. If betting stops being fun, [BeGambleAware](https://www.begambleaware.org) offers free, confidential support on 0808 8020 133. 18+, please gamble responsibly.

## Frequently asked questions

### When is the Kerry National run?

Every year on the Wednesday of the seven-day Harvest Festival, the third day of racing. It has been the meeting's Wednesday centrepiece for as long as the roll of honour above covers.

### How many days does the Listowel Harvest Festival run?

Seven, opening Sunday 20 September 2026: Ireland's joint-longest race meeting alongside Galway. Two of the seven days, Monday and Tuesday, are all-Flat cards; the rest are National Hunt.

### What is the biggest race of the week?

The Guinness Kerry National on the Wednesday: a Grade 3 Handicap Chase over three miles, worth EUR200,000 and Ireland's most valuable handicap chase.

### When is Listowel Ladies Day?

The Friday of festival week, built around the William Hill Handicap Hurdle and the McElligotts Kia Best Dressed Lady competition. It is the meeting's biggest crowd of the seven days.

### Does Stablebet's AI Lab cover Listowel?

Not this far out. The model's card publishes once a day's runners are declared, so there is nothing live to show for a fixture still days away. Check the [AI Lab's daily card](/ai-race-predictor/today/) once the festival is under way, or the [track record](/ai-race-predictor/track-record/) for how it performs generally in the meantime. The trends on this page are a pattern-match from the results record, not a model output.

### When are the Kerry National's runners confirmed?

Final declarations come in the days before the race once entries have passed through the forfeit stages, the same as any other Irish handicap chase. Before that point, any list of likely runners is provisional.