Noel Meade on Punchestown memories, the Carberry's and much more
Trainer Noel Meade after sending out Disko, with Bryan Cooper up, to win the Growise Champion Novice Steeplechase at Punchestown Racecourse in Naas, Co. Kildare. Photo by Cody Glenn/Sportsfile
Despite plying his early trade among the flat racers of the Irish racing scene, Noel Meade would come to be known as one of the most successful national hunt trainers in the country and a seven-time Irish Champion Trainer.
Before all that, Noel was a young race-goer like the rest of us and can still remember his first trip out towards Eadestown in the early 1960s.
“The first time I went to Punchestown I went with an uncle of mine because everyone else in my family hadn’t much interest in racing. My uncle Tom Halpin who was very keen on racing, used to bring me and his son James,” Noel recalled.
Not doing much betting at the time as Noel and James were little more than 10 years old, late controversy in the final race at Punchestown gave the two young punters a win for themselves.
“There was a photo-finish in the last race and the horse that got the race wasn’t the one that was favourite. When we were coming out we picked up winning tickets off the ground. Tote tickets so that was my first memory of Punchestown,” he laughed.
Finding winners would never come as easy as picking them off the floor but Noel would certainly have plenty more in Punchestown. Not just any old ones either as Noel registered his first Grade 1 success in 1985 with a horse that would get over the line twice on festival week.
“The first Grade 1 I had at the festival…Atherstone won on the Tuesday of the festival in a novice handicap and then we ran him again on day three for the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle and he won there again. That was one of the few Grade 1’s that was in Punchestown at the time. It wasn’t like what it is now,” Noel said.
As alluded to above, Punchestown was a very different festival than the one that tens of thousands will flock to in the coming weeks. The glamorous fashion and Grade 1 racing were far more scarce in those days and few have seen more of its evolution than the Meath trainer.
“When they overhauled the festival, it used to be three-days and very much handicap races. The Punchestown Gold Cup may even have been a handicap at that time. When they developed it and introduced the Grade 1’s it changed the whole scenario of the place,” Noel explained.
“Most of the races were maiden or handicaps, not the standard we’re at now.”
Punchestown has become the place to be for national hunt trainers when festival time rolls around in April as some of the stars of Cheltenham make their way onto Irish soil.
“If you are training jumping horses in Ireland, the places you want to be are Leopardstown at Christmas, Fairyhouse and Punchestown. Punchestown has grown into our championships. To have winners at those places is what you want to do, that is what your season is about, to have something good enough to win those championship races,” Noel said.
Noel has had plenty of those wins over the years on the grounds of Punchestown across Champion Chase and Champion Novice Hurdle victories.
When exploring Noel’s success stories you see the intrinsic links between himself and the Carberry family. And different generations of it as Noel teamed up with old friend Tommy for many years as well as having his children Paul and Nina ride for Tu Va Stables.
“From very early on, I was great with Tommy and he rode winners for me, we always enjoyed sharing a drink. Paul started off with Jim Bolger and that didn’t work out and Tommy informed me so I said he could come down with me,” Noel explained.
“He was a very very good flat jockey but all he ever wanted to do was be a jump jockey. From there, other than two years in England with Robert Ogden he spent the rest of his riding career with me.”
“We had ups and downs but we are still very good friends and meet up every now and again.”
Noel had great things to say about all his relationships within the national hunt jockey family but his voice rose up a level when talking about one particular member of the Carberry’s however.
“Then of course Nina came along, she became my racing assistant in 2013 and then she was Champion Lady rider I would say nearly every year she was with us. She was with me up until she went down to Aidan (O’Brien) one summer and he stole her off me,” Noel said.
“She was supposed to go to Aidan for a month in the summer time and of course Aidan realised what he had and the next thing he offered so much that she had to stay.”
The latter part of the glowing endorsement was said with an indefinite mournful sigh as Noel remembered losing the star in the making that Nina was.
“Nina was and is an unbelievable person. She is so dedicated to whatever she does. If Nina was painting windows, they would be done properly, everything she does is done to perfection. When she works, she throws her heart and soul into it.”
“If Paul had the same application they would be talking about him for the rest of the century…but he didn't unfortunately. But she was phenomenal, the way she handled herself and was dedicated to what she did. She never left any stone unturned in her pursuit to be the best.
“They were the two I spent the most time with and we had great times together.”
