Sun, 20th Oct, 2024  We are just having a fantastic time of it and to win that race is very special,. I won it previously in 1999 when today’s clerk of the course Paul Moloney rode Kaselectric to win at Cork (with Limerick being developed), but that was a good while ago, so we were due another! E McNamara

After race at Limerick Sun, 20th Oct, 2024 (1st)  We are just having a fantastic time of it and to win that race is very special,. I won it previously in 1999 when today’s clerk of the course Paul Moloney rode Kaselectric to win at Cork (with Limerick being developed), but that was a good while ago, so we were due another! E McNamara

After race at Leopardstown Tue, 27th Dec, 2022 (1st)  It was brilliant the way it worked out. A huge thanks to Tadhg Moynihan, I picked him out at the sales and rang him and asked if he would buy him. He said Eric if you want him and I said 'I don't want to go home without him'. So I bought him but he paid for him. He paid for himself today. To win one of these handicaps is great. He was well handicapped if we could rekindle him, he spent two years doing nothing in England, whatever went wrong there. We changed his routine and we were always very kind to him. We brought him a few different places to work and we never took him off the bridle. We trained him like he was a real good horse and he always worked against horses that he could beat just to try and mentally get him back to where he was. He was a real good horse. He was only beaten seven-and-a-quarter lengths in a Gold Cup. I met Tadhg in Listowel one year, he was a great friend of Sean Currans', and we've been great friends ever since. He always said he'd love to win the Kerry National so I bought this fella to try and win it. He'll be there next year but this will do!. Conor gave him a great ride and did everything right so it's fantastic. E McNamara

After race at Thurles Sun, 19th Jan, 2020 (1st)  I was disappointed with Footpad but I think he ran too free and the pace was a little bit slow. The two horses up front weren't jumping at the speed you'd expect in a race like this. Footpad did too much in the middle mile of the race and missing the omitted third last fence didn't give him a chance to get his breath back which left him exposed. I was very pleased with how Real Steel jumped and how he stayed on and he is improving. Voix Du Reve improved from his last run as well. I'd imagine the Ryanair Chase is the plan for Real Steel. Paul said he was as straight as a dye today and there was no bias (jumping left or right). We were concerned before but we have to be looking at the Ryanair Chase with that performance. Footpad could possibly do the same but today was not his run. Maybe he had too hard a race in Kempton and it may have impacted on him. W P Mullins

After race at Thurles Thu, 30th Nov, 2017 (1st)  He jumped a bit big early on but once he got the hang of the Irish hurdles, he was slick. He was lucky enough to get a run through on the inside (at the third last) when the leader was hanging off the rails. I thought two miles would be fine for him but Paul said he'd like to step him go up in trip so we'll see what presents itself. After that first bit of experience, he'll be a lot sharper over two miles the next time. It was a tough race and either of the two (also runner Daly Tiger) could have won any maiden hurdle this week. It was unfortunate they met - for Noel's (Meade) sake anyway! W P Mullins