Noel Meade braved the frosty conditions at Dundalk last Friday night for some flat racing. Photo: GERRY SHANAHAN / WWW.QUIRKE.IE

Over half-a-century on the track for Noel Meade

Saturday 2nd January was a special day for Castletown man Noel Meade.

The seven-time champion trainer celebrated his 70th birthday and marked the occasion with a winner when the aptly-named Hes A Hardy Bloke landed the opening race at Cork.

One more victory as the Meath trainer heads towards the 3,000-winner mark in a career that spans more than half-a-century since he had his first runner back in 1970 when he held a permit to train his own horse.

That one grey horse with the French name (Tu Va), jointly-owned with Michael Condra, is still fondly remembered by the then enthusiastic amateur jockey who almost 30 years later would scoop his first National Hunt trainers' title, it would be the first of seven titles.

For nine seasons Meade trained the most winners, but prizemoney came into the equation around 2007.

Noel and wife Derville at Navan races in 2016 Photo by David Mullen

That early 2021 winner at Cork on his 70th birthday was followed 24 hours later by another in the opening race at Fairyhouse.

And that first winner almost 50 years ago was a double for Meade as he both trained and rode Tu Va to victory in an amateur maiden hurdle at Wexford in August 1971.

The young ambitious 20-year-old was on his way in an era when there was much less racing on a weekly basis than now and none on a Sunday.

"I remember it well and it was a very special day, not alone to train my first winner, but to ride it as well, an amateur maiden hurdle at Wexford," he told the Meath Chronicle this week.

“It was sort of compensation for getting beaten in Galway a few weeks earlier in a race I probably should have won, but I wasn't the greatest jockey in the world.

“I got plenty of stick from a few friends, it was all good-natured although I knew that I could have won.

“I was beaten into second by Mouse Morris, Dermot Weld was third and the late John Burke, a Nobber man, was in fourth place," he added.

To get a winner on the board that early in his fledgling training career was a fine achievement as the young Noel Meade had no background in racing apart from ponies as a teenager.

However, he had a great admiration for Tom Dreaper which started from the time he was brought to Fairyhouse on Irish Grand National day as part of a family outing for many years.

He also developed a great interest in following the Meath football team as his uncle (Ted) used to bring him to games on a regular basis.

"I had no background in racing and the only preparation I did for about six months or so before I started training was to ride out over in Moynalty on a Saturday morning with Cyril Bryce-Smyth," he said.

"I never worked with any other trainer, but I would have learned a lot with Tu Va, what to do that worked and what didn't work, I learned as I went along, I would be self-taught I suppose.

“My uncle Ted (Meade) would have sparked my interest in football and following Meath, he was actually my godfather. His own sons, Kevin and Aidan weren't particularly fond of football and Ted used to bring me when he'd be going to Croke Park and places like that.

"I used to be brought along from the age of about eight or nine and that's where my interest developed.

"Ted was a good player and had started for Meath in the 1939 All-Ireland final against Kerry and then he was a selector on the 1949 team when the Sam Maguire was won for the first time.

THE MEATH TEAM THAT PLAYED IN THE 1939 FINAL

Ted Meade is fourth from left back row

"Ted had his own views on things and he'd let you know what was what, but he was also very fond of racing along with another uncle (Tom Halpin).

"Tom used to bring myself and his own son James racing fairly often and that, along with what used to be an annual day out to the Irish Grand National with my own mother and father, probably helped to spark the interest in the racing.

"I played a bit of football with Castletown, but I suppose I could say I was nearly as a good a footballer as I was a jockey.

"We were a bit spoiled in Meath through the 1980s and 1990s with all the success that Sean Boylan achieved and I hardly ever missed a championship game, except once in 1998 and that was because I had a runner, Sunshine Street, in the Irish Derby.

"Three weeks earlier Sunshine Street had run in the Epsom Derby.

“Even to this day it is one of the races I will never, ever forget.

WATCH SUNSHINE STREET LEAD THE WAY AT EPSOM

“Sunshine Street finished fourth, but before the race I was going up to the stables in Epsom with the owner (Pat Garvey) and he was adamant that we were going to give it a go no matter what.

"Pat said he wanted Johnny (Murtagh) to ride the horse positively and that's what happened.

"Johnny kicked at the top of the hill, I was watching from the stand and was pleased that the horse was running well.

"At the three-furlong pole he was clear, still in front at the two, I was standing beside one of the Sheikhs, not sure who he was, but approaching the furlong pole we looked at each other.

"He really couldn't believe what was in front and neither could I and he was only beaten about three lengths.

"There's something about the Epsom Derby, it's the flat race everyone knows about, a bit like the Aintree National, everyone knows about it.

"Sunshine Street was the only runner I ever had in the Epsom Derby and it was a great day, what a performance from a 200/1 or even 250/1 shot.

"He was a maiden at the time and had finished second in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial at Leopardstown behind one of Aidan O'Brien's a month earlier.

“After that race journalist Michael Clower asked me where would he go to next? I said ‘Epsom,’ he said ‘for what?’and I replied, ‘isn’t that where they run the Derby?’

"We ran him in the Breeders Cup and in a lot of high grade races the following year before he went to Neil Drysdale in America in 1999," he added.

However, some years prior to that 1998 Epsom Derby, Meade had decided to concetrate more on national hunt racing than on the flat and that decision was rewarded in 1999.

"That following year (1999) was a big one for me as I won the national hunt trainers title for the first time after finishing runner up to Aidan O'Brien for two or three years,

"I was officially declared champion trainer on seven occasions after that first success in 1999, but for nine seasons I had the most winners, but prizemoney came into the equation then.

"Willie Mullins took over the mantle and has dominated for the last 12 or 13 years and there is a right duel now since Gordon Elliott came on the scene over the last decade or so.

"Willie is an excellent trainer and deserves all the success he has achieved, but Gordon has been pushing him each season.

"Gordon is a very capable trainer and he delegates to a good back up team, he learned a lot from Martin Pipe and he has a good racing brain.

Photo by David Mullen www.cyberimages.net, David Mullen

"I've always felt that if you can win in the sales ring, then you can win on the track and Gordon has put together a group of owners who can buy the top horses," he suggested.

Talking about the big races and the winners over the years brought the conversation around to Cheltenham, especially the fact that there wasn't a Festival winner from Castletown until 2000, some 30 years after the journey started.

"We had a lot of hard luck in Cheltenham over the years before that elusive first winner in 2000 when Paul (Carberry) and Sausalito Bay won the Supreme Novices' Hurdle," he said.

"That was a bogey off the back, but I suppose one of the best remembered races at Cheltenham is the Champion Hurdle that Harchibald didn't win in 2005.

"Myself and the late Dessie Hughes who trained the winner, Hardy Eustace were standing together for that race and when they jumped the last Dessie tipped my shoulder and said 'you have it' and it looked that way, but it didn't work out.

"Watching that at the time was like having someone pull the rug out from under you, Harchibald looked to be going so well.

"He was a good horse, he won five Grade 1 races, but Paul (Carberry) maintained that he jumped the second last too well that day at Cheltenham.

"A lot of the problems were that Harchi's wind wasn't great and when he would come under pressure you would see the head going up so that he could breathe and that was a factor in every race.

“Paul Carberry was with me for a very long time and was one of the most brilliant riders one could wish to see.

“He was very sympathetic to the horses he rode and had an unbelievable natural talent.

Noel Meade and Paul Carberry at Navan races in 2007. Photo by John Quirke

“He was a champion over jumps and I have no doubt if he put his mind to it that he would’ve been a champion on the flat as well,” stated Meade.

There was also plenty of excitement around his first win in the Irish Grand National.

"I remember my first Irish Grand National winner, Dessie Hughes was beside me that day also and coming to the last he tipped the shoulder again to say 'you have it' and then The Bunny Boiler nearly fell, Ross Geraghty did a great job to stay on,” stated Meade.

“To win that race was huge as I remember going to Fairyhouse as a family day out and watching Tom Dreaper win the race on many occasions, for me to win it was a great honour.

"It was even more special as Ross is a son of one of my great friends, Tucker Geraghty, and that made it a bit special also.

"That brings me nicely to another Geraghty, Barry, he was with me when he started, he was a brilliant rider and had a good career.

Photo by Patrick McCann

"There wasn't a stronger rider in a finish than Barry and that would include AP (Tony McCoy), Barry was really strong.

"Joe Byrne was another jockey who started with me back in the early 1970s, he won a six-furlong flat race in Navan on Tu Va.

"Joe was a good judge of pace and was champion jockey when he was with me, he was always in the right place at the right time," recalled Meade fondly of the late Joe Byrne.

For most of the past year the Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact across the world and horseracing in Ireland hasn't escaped just like other sports.

The Castletown man has huge regard for Dr Jennifer Pugh of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) for the role she has played in making sure that racing can continue behind closed doors.

"Jennifer Pugh deserves an enormous amount of credit," suggested Meade.

"She put in place the protocols for the return to racing and she did a very good job, she has a lot of common sense and that helps a lot.

"The staff here with me have been fantastic also since this Covid-19 pandemic, we have staff from all over the country.

“During the earlier lockdown when there was no racing it was the first time for many years that there was no pressure of the day-to-day demands that go with the job.

"I found that period very peaceful, but when we got going again we were all glad.

“Looking to the future, I intend to keep going for as long as I can, my mother Agnes made it to 100 before she passed away in May 2014 and she was always encouraging me once she saw that I was making a go of the training.

"My father (Patsy) had the same view once he saw that I was serious about the training, he passed away in 1984.

"I had been working on the farm from the age of 16 in the late 1960s after my father's illness, we had a lot of cattle and sheep, he recovered subsequently, but I was running the place.

"When I started with the horses he wasn't that enthusiastic, but he let me at it.

"When it started to look like I was doing okay he was pleased about that. Then the number of outside horses started to build up gradually and I was learning all the time.

“There were times I often wondered what would I do next, but something always turned up, some people might call it skill, I'd think it was luck, but it was very enjoyable.

“There’s not as much fun as there used to be, but I still enjoy what I’m doing.

“I think I have improved over the last 50 years because you are always learning and we have built up a fabulous team of staff who have been with me for a long time.

“Without the staff, none of this would be possible.

“The welfare of the horses is the main priority, but if there is a problem then it's over to the vet.

“He will arrive into the yard with a mobile X-ray scanner, the results are instant, you can now find out what injuries a horse has whereas when I started there was nothing like that.

“I think nowadays it's actually easier to get an X-ray for a horse than it is for a person, but technology has helped in the right way.

“The place is called after Tu Va because he was the first horse, he was very consistent, but was only a moderate handicapper.

"I got the best out of him and he probably got the best out of me, but as I said before, you are always learning in this game,” he concluded.

BELOW A SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OVER THE YEARS

31-05-00.FAIRYHOUSE RACES.Charles O'Reilly (Left), Director Fairyhouse Racecourse presenting trainer championship award to Noel Meade.Photo: John Quirke.
29-04-04. Punchestown Races.Paul Carberry and Noel Meade in the parade ring Photo: John Quirke.