'He's better than he was last year' - why The Real Whacker could bounce back in the Kerry National

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It's Guinness Kerry National time, another of those important staging posts along the road back towards the core jump season. Listowel's big race will take place on Wednesday and there's a really significant British-trained runner near the top of the weights.

It's The Real Whacker, who put his name in lights when beating Gerri Colombe in the Brown Advisory a year and a half ago, the climax to an unbeaten season for him. He's trained by Patrick Neville, who moved over to Yorkshire from Limerick just three years ago - so this is arguably more of a homecoming than a raid on an overseas prize.

There's no getting away from it, The Real Whacker had a disappointing last season. On the form of his festival win, he should have been a contender for all the big races at three miles but his best run ended up being second place in the Cotswold Chase. 

Neville doesn't accept last season as a fair representation of his horse's ability. "I just drew a line across it, across most of the year that I had," he tells the Front Runner. 

He immediately relates his enthusiasm for his new base, just a few miles across Leyburn from where he was before. Neville is now in a yard owned by former trainer Sally Hall. It makes him a neighbour to Jedd O'Keeffe.

The gallop at his previous base was unavailable for use in the early part of last season, Neville says. "So we were struggling, we were having to go over and back. We were doing the work but I'd say it was taking a toll on the horses, travelling them. We were running around like headless chickens."

Just a glance at Neville's stats backs up his assertion that things are going better now. From May last year, there was a ten-month stretch in which he had just a couple of winners. Since the start of August, soon after his move, he's had three winners from 11 runners.

"Anything we've run has gone well and we've had some winners and a couple just touched off," is how he puts it. One of the winners was Here Comes Georgie, defying odds of 33-1 in a feature race at Perth - you might recall the owners, the Hold My Beer syndicate, telling us all about it.

So you can see why Neville is excited to get his stable star going again, especially since the Irish handicapper has dropped The Real Whacker to a mark of 155, half a stone below his peak rating.

Sam Twiston-Davies and connections celebrate The Real Whacker's 2023 Cheltenham winCredit: Michael Steele (racingpost.com/photos)

"He's in great form, really well," Neville says. "I had this race in the back of my mind all the time because there was nothing there for him until November.

"Ground and everything at the moment is suiting us. I walked it yesterday evening, it's good, safe ground. There's a little bit of rain coming on Wednesday, I think, but it wouldn't really affect it that much. 

"He wants it like that. He ran a few times in the last year on real deep, heavy, winter ground and he just doesn't act on it."

The Real Whacker travelled over to Listowel on Saturday, to ensure he had plenty of time to recover from the 18-hour journey. He was on one of Kerry's beautiful beaches yesterday morning, stretching his legs in the sea water. "We'll freshen him up like that for a few days."

Neville believes Listowel will suit The Real Whacker and he ought to know, because it was a local track when he was based in Limerick. "Listowel was like a Cheltenham for me, every year," he recalls, and he had success there. His Rightville Boy was second in the Kerry National of 2016, when Wrath Of Titans won for Gordon Elliott and Lisa O'Neill.

"It's a sharp track and it takes jumping, they're good, big fences. It suits a front-runner, a horse that would be handy." 

The Real Whacker, of course, is just such a front-runner. Several bookmakers have him at 10-1 for Wednesday's race but some have clipped him into 8s.

Neville intends to leave off the visor with which he fitted his star for the final two runs of last season. "He doesn't need any headgear. Well ... I hope I'm not swallowing my words on Wednesday night but he seems happy, healthy and well in himself, a good bit better than what he was last year."

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The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.