Trainer Joe O’Keeffe has Cheltenham Festival aspirations for today’s Listowel winner Hard Station who routed his rivals for an easy ‘made-all’ win in the Join The Listowel Races Supporters Club Hunters Chase.

Ridden by capable amateur Johnny Barry, Hard Station made all the running in his 18 lengths win over Anshan Dreams

The winning son of Bandari is out of a half-sister to Champion Chase winner Newmill and following today’s win, his second successive hunters chase win, O’Keeffe stated “he's a proper horse and we’ll go back point-to-pointing and hunter chasing next autumn.

“If he progresses you’d certainly be thinking about it (the Foxhunters Chase at Cheltenham). He loves that ground today and he has improved and jumped better today.”

Hard Station carries the colours of O’Keeffe’s 98 year old father James O’Keeffe.

By Tom Weekes