Listowel 1997 will always hold fond memories for the talented young apprentice Jamie Spencer who eclipsed the Kinanes and Murtaghs of this world to end up the leading flat rider at the festival with four winners. Spencer brought up the fourth when the versatile Maytpleasethecourt won Saturday's feature, the £10,000 Kaliber Handicap, under a wonderfully patient and cool ride.
Wray started a warm favourite for this but his topweight started to tell surprisingly early and he was done with entering the straight. Spencer had Maytpleasethecourt even further back in the field at that stage but patience is the key to this filly and when she did pick up, her rider never had to get overly serious to beat Dunrally Fort by half a length.
Quite Chuffed and Euphoric flashed past third and fourth respectively but their placings were reversed after the stewards looked at an incident just before the turn in. Quite Chuffed's rider, Shane Kelly, subsequently received a four-day ban for careless riding.
It was a dramatic turn-around in fortunes for Kelly who only half an hour earlier had ridden his 12th winner of the season on Notluckytochange - landing her second of the week - in the Mermaids Handicap. The mare started at 12 to 1 in the face of sustained support for Sharp Scotch, backed from 14 to 1 in the morning to 3 to 1 favourite, and Landing Craft who fared best of the pair in only fifth.
Charlie Swan joined Richard Dunwoody as the leading jumps rider of the week when notching number five on the 1 to 3 shot Promalee in the Edmond Whelan Memorial Novices Hurdle. Aidan O'Brien's very promising staying novice was never out of second gear to beat Magical Fun and add to his hurdling debut success on Wednesday.
O'Brien only confirmed his position as leading trainer with that as he had earlier won the opening maiden with the Moyglare Stud Stakes also ran Karakorum who overhauled the free-running and well-backed favourite, Balla Sola, by a length, but Swan had to settle for second in the novices chase when Greenflag Princess was outstayed by Persian Life on the run in.
With an official crowd of 20,200 passing through the gates on Wednesday and 18,000 on Thursday, the popularity of the Listowel was proved yet again.
Not surprisingly, considering there were eight-race cards on four of the six days compared to only one last year, the betting turnover was up, this year's overall figure of £4,021,934 comparing with £3,733,885 last year.
Considering that, the tote aggregate of £1,321,401 for the week compared to £1,363,547 last year is quite disappointing, although there were a number of Jackpot carry-overs 12 months ago.
