OF all the tips and whispers you’re likely to hear in Co Kerry this coming week, following horses from the Tipperary-based yard of John Ryan can be rated solid advice – the stats are there to back it up.

With eight winners from just 35 runners in the last five seasons, Ryan has the third highest strike rate of National Hunt trainers at all meetings at the Kerry venue in that time period. Over half of those runners finished in the top three and if you blindly backed every Ryan runner in Listowel, you’d be well off to the tune of a €21.83 profit from a €1 stake.

“I love going back to Listowel,” the trainer said. “We are farmers and it’s lovely to go back and be among your own type of people. It’s a truly unique place with a great atmosphere. We’d be looking at the festival from a long way out and we love having winners there.”

The wonderful servant Kylecrue has provided four of those eight wins for Ryan, which includes the last three runnings of the Kerry Group Handicap Chase on the first day of the meeting. It is no surprise that the 11-year-old will bid to make it a remarkable four-timer tomorrow.

“We’ve trained Kylecrue especially with this race in mind all year and he’s in brilliant form. He absolutely loves the place and he should run another huge race,” Ryan said.

Kilcarry Bridge is a similarly loyal servant and he’s going to have another crack at the Kerry National on Wednesday.

“He should get into the race and if he does, he has to have a big chance,” Ryan said. “He’ll love that trip and he ran a really nice race over two and a half miles at Cork last time.”

Elsewhere, Ryan is looking forward to having plenty of chances throughout the week: “Brooks Falls won a bumper at Sligo last month and she’ll start off in a three-mile maiden hurdle on the Sunday. Presenting Mahler is back in better form and she won a nice race on the Saturday last year.

“Georges Conn is another we’re looking forward to running. He has had a few problems but he’s in good form now. He was rated in the high 120s last year and he is off 104 now so he could be nicely treated. He’ll go for the qualified riders’ race on the Saturday and Liam Quinlan is going to ride him.

“Hopefully they’ll all run well and we’d love to have another winner.”