Alfa jumps to National Beat

PUNTERS’ FIRST impressions of Listowel’s Festival highlight, the Guinness Kerry National, were confirmed in style yesterday when their long-time ante-post pick, Alfa Beat, got the better of the gambled-on favourite Dancing Tornado.

The prolific grey notched his fifth victory in a row under an inspired Barry Geraghty ride that left favourite backers on the day licking their wounds. Tony McCoy and Dancing Tornado were all the rage in the Listowel betting ring but a series of mistakes through the race cost them and it was only in the last strides that Dancing Tornado overhauled JP McManus’s other runner, Finger Onthe Pulse, for second.

It completed a remarkable five-in-a-row for Alfa Beat who has risen 45lb in the ratings during the summer and still managed to overcome conditions that were softer than he liked. Geraghty’s decision to switch wide in search of better going, away from the rest of the field, paid off in spades, however.

“He was struggling on the ground so I switched him out. I was surprised the way he came home. It’s a great race to win,” said the jockey who won the Kerry National previously on Monty’s Pass eight years ago.

He went on to win the following year’s Aintree National and Ladbrokes have introduced Alfa Beat into their Liverpool 2011 betting at 33 to 1. It was a good day for Co Limerick trainer Charles Byrnes whose long-term aim for Alfa Beat is not the National but instead the four-mile amateur race at next year’s Cheltenham Festival.