Great buzz for everyone with four Navan winners

What a week and what a boost for everyone in the yard. Seven winners and four of them on Sunday at the local track in Navan. And it could have been five if Fisher Bridge had won, but there"s no point in being too greedy, it was a fantastic few days and it gave us all a great lift. The place was buzzing on Monday morning, we all got a great kick out of it, especially with some of the horses, Aran Concerto in particular, he is a very big horse and he was off the track for over 18 months. Then there was Pandorama winning the first race at Navan, he looks like he could be something special, the bumper winner, Across The Bay, he looks fairly decent also. Aran had a pretty bad injury to his hock and a lot of horses don"t come back from something like that. He was in England for three months receiving treatment in Newmarket. The vet that looked after him deserves a lot of credit and he was always very positive that the horse would make a full recovery. At one stage there was a chance that he was going to race again last year, but then he just got a setback and we decided to take our time with him and wait for this season. One very important factor in the whole process was the owner, John Corr, who was prepared to be patient, because you can only afford to take small steps forward. John has had horses before, not just with me, but with other trainers also. He knows the game well and I was delighted that he had a double at Navan on Sunday when Watson Lake also won. But Sunday"s race at Navan proved a couple of things about Aran Concerto. It proved he was sound and he won the race well, it wasn"t a great race by any means and he got tired, but he still got home well. If we had tried to rush Aran Concerto back to the track it"s quite likely that we would have ruined him. Watson Lake was third to War Of Attrition at Punchestown last month, but that was also his first race after a long absence and on Sunday Paul gave him a good ride, he has settled a bit as well now that he"s 10, I suppose age is probably working in his favour. He winged his fences and there"s plenty of those type of races for him, there would probably be one a month if we can keep him going. As he has won Group 1 races he would have to contend with penalties, but conditions" races of two or two and a half miles will suit him best. Pandorama is another of these big horses, he jumps well. When Nina Carberry won on him the first time I suggested to her that she went very quick on him, but she maintained that it wasn"t that noticeable. Paul Carberry said the same on Sunday, that he has a very high cruising speed. We reckon now that it will be very hard to beat him on soft ground. He can be a bit awkward at his hurdles, but he is a big horse and Sunday was his first maiden hurdle, I"m sure he will improve from that. Fisher Bridge was a little bit unlucky, he dropped the bridle after the fourth last and Paul thought he emptied out a bit, but he picked him up and winged the third last. They ended up in front far too soon and the horse idled, Paul felt if he had waited he would have beaten Barry Geraghty, but overall I was happy with the performance as Fisher Bridge and the winner were a long way clear of the third horse. The two bumper winners, Across The Bay at Navan and Realt Dubh at Clonmel, look promising as well. Across The Bay stays well, we might try another bumper, I"m just not sure yet, there"s a winners" bumper at Fairyhouse at the end of the month which is a possibility, but a stiffer track than Fairyhouse would probably suit better. Realt Dubh looks like a good prospect, we bought him at the sales in Cheltenham. When he was beaten a short-head at Kilbeggan by Luska Lad I was very disappointed, but the form from that race has worked out well. Luska Lad won again at Galway last month. Raealt Dubh will go hurdling now and you will see a different horse completely, I think he"s quite useful and he has a good change of gear. Emmet Butterly missed a winner at Thurles because he couldn"t do the weight so I had to get help from Willie Mullins who has a good prospect in Paul Townend. It was an opportunity race for conditional riders and Paul Townend took his chance well with Island Life. Our other conditional rider, Luke McNiff, hasn"t got a licence over fences yet. This is something that the authorities are strict about, they want jockeys" to have experience It"s not common to get jockeys who ride over fences and on the flat, but 'Slippers" Niall Madden does it because he is light enough and I was glad to see him back in action and on a winner at Naas on Saturday. I was surprised when he reported for work as I had mentioned in last week"s column that I thought he would be out for a few more weeks, but we"re all glad to have him back. I"m not sending anything to Cheltenham this weekend and our main focus will be on Jered at Punchestown on Sunday in what was the Morgiana, but it"s now the Maplewood Developments Hurdle. This will be a big step up for Jered and we will just have to see how it goes. Hopefully, Harchibald will go for a flat race at Dundalk on Friday night before heading for Newcastle in a fortnight, but we will be aiming to keep him off the soft ground. I was delighted to see my cousin, James Halpin, back in the winners" enclosure at Dundalk last Friday night, he"s doing well with a small string of horses. And I see that Barry Geraghty has been nominated for a HRI award, but he faces stiff opposition in Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh. It"s good to see Ger Lyons included for an award in the flat category and I hope he has a good run with Pasar Silbano out in California this weekend. Visit Noel Meade"s website: www.noelmeade.com