THIS coming Harvest Festival will mark my 10th anniversary as secretary of Listowel Race Company. I worked as Assistant (secretary) to my late father up until his death in 2015.

While it might have seemed a natural progression that I would inherit the job, I am lucky to have a very supportive board of directors, who put their trust in me. On Sunday afternoon, the first of seven days of this year’s festival gets underway with an all National Hunt card.

My father was walking down the street in Listowel one day in the 1950s, when he was approached by the then secretary, who invited him to join the race company as his assistant. Just a few short months after, the latter passed away, leaving Dad in charge. Talk about a baptism of fire!

In those days, Listowel only had the one meeting a year, the main fixture in September. Aside from his role as secretary, my father also worked in McKenna’s Hardware shop, in the office, in town. Every Monday, businesses closed in the town for a half-day, so after school on most Mondays, I would head over to the racecourse with dad.

Sunny memories

Looking back on it now, those days always seemed to be sunny. I suppose it’s just what you remember as a child. An office was rented in The Square, Listowel at that time and it was there that Dad worked for many years, until he converted a room at home into a home-office. Maurice McElligott, who lived across the road from the racecourse, was caretaker. Myself and Dad would meet up with him when we went over on those half-days.

As kids, the big thing about race week was that you were off school. I think nowadays, the schools close for a couple of half-days but back then it was all week. Birds Amusements would have been another huge attraction. My mother was a keen racegoer, so I would have gone along to the races with her when I was quite young. In my early teens, I would have been looking for some little jobs to do for my father, such as answering the phones and the like.

In the early days of Dad’s work, there was very limited stabling available on the course, so whatever outhouses or sheds could be found around town were used to keep horses. I couldn’t imagine that being allowed now! By the time I started helping my father with some casual work, a racecourse office had been added.

Declarations came in by phone on race days, having to be typed up each day. There was huge pressure to get these written up quickly and accurately, as a line of people would have been waiting outside the office door.

Assistant

Having stayed in Listowel after finishing in school, I sort of morphed into the job at the racecourse. I never thought that I would end up doing so, but after helping out unofficially for some time, I was appointed assistant secretary in 1993. I would have thought that I knew a lot as I had grown up with the job, but it’s very different when you are doing it day to day.

The fax machine was a huge invention for us when I first started. We no longer had to sit by the phone typing out long lists of declarations. Nowadays, we hardly ever get a fax any more - it’s all emails. Dad had a manual typewriter, which he pounded away on. He refused to get an electronic one or be swayed by computers.

In the last decade, everything has been computerised. After my dad died in 2015, the board of directors ratified me as his successor. Given my experience by that stage, the transition went relatively smoothly. However, it was always comforting to know I could run things by Dad when he was alive. I’m sure there have been times over the last few years, when he would have been rolling his eyes up to heaven!

I’m lucky to have the support of chairman David Fitzmaurice, vice-chairman Maurice Carroll and our board, which consists of nine directors and one honorary life member. I’m sure like all of us, Covid is something my dad could never have envisaged. After the country went into lockdown in 2020, the three-day June meeting was lost. That same year, the September Festival went ahead, but was held behind closed doors.

Restrictions

Similar restrictions were in place by the time the 2021 June fixture came about, while numbers were capped at 2,000 per day in September. By 2022, there was a real hunger for racing, with huge crowds flocking to the Harvest Festival. We were very lucky with the weather, as that made it so much easier, in terms of keeping people outdoors where possible.

There was a great buzz about the place, with racegoers just relieved to be able to come and enjoy the sport at first hand once again.

For many people, Listowel marks the real start of the National Hunt season, with the Kerry National often proving the starting point for some of the leading winter horses. Dorans Pride was one such animal, who regularly made his seasonal reappearance here.

In a new departure, this year the flat racing will be staged on the Monday and Tuesday, while National Hunt racing will have the remaining days to itself. As ever, the Kerry National, which takes place on Wednesday afternoon, is the feature race of the week.

This year, the prize fund for the race is €200,000. On Friday, we welcome a new sponsor, MCG Financial Solutions, who have kindly come on board to take over a €100,000 Listed handicap hurdle. Although final declarations have yet to be confirmed, at this stage we are hopeful of attracting overseas competitors for both of those contests.

Brenda Daly was in conversation with John O’Riordan.