IT was the worst of days that would ultimately bring out the best in Donagh Meyler, even if it felt impossible to see it that way at the time.

Rarely had the Galway Races delivered such agony and ecstasy rolled into one. Yet, it proved the catalyst for a season of all seasons in the popular National Hunt rider’s career.

The 30-year-old will never forget that summer Thursday in the west. Win the Galway Hurdle in a driving finish on Helvic Dream. Absolute elation. Lose the Galway Hurdle in a dramatic stewards’ inquiry. Complete gut punch.

Somehow, amidst the chaos of it all, Meyler dusted himself down and - mere minutes after finding out he’d lost one of Ireland’s most famous races due to causing interference with the second-past-the-post - he served up a peach of a ride to win the following novice hurdle on Ross O’Sullivan’s Strong Link.

Still, the dual Galway Plate-winning rider could barely bring himself to speak when asked by the press at the time about his earlier demotion. Naturally, it was an outcome that stung badly.

“In racing terms, it was absolutely the worst day of my life,” Meyler says.

“I read a good quote since; I saw the very best of myself in the sport and the very worst of myself in the sport. It was a horrible day. It kills me.

“But, I told myself after that day that there were two ways of looking at it. One option was to curl up in a ball and let that define my season. The other was to give myself a kick up the arse and really attack this season. I went chasing this year very hard. I didn’t want the Galway Hurdle to define my year.”

The Kilmacow, Co Kilkenny native took that disappointment and used it as rocket fuel, to judge by his exploits in the months since.

Having never ridden more than 28 winners in a single season before, he is now just one success short of breaking into 50 domestic wins for 2025/’26. This season, he has never been so in demand either - and his strike rate is at its highest. Nearly one in three of his rides have finished in the first two.

All these gains have been notable given that, a couple of seasons ago, one might have wondered what trajectory Meyler’s career was taking. In the last half-dozen seasons, he recorded finishes of 35th, 18th, 31st, 18th, 20th and 15th in the Irish National Hunt Jockeys’ Championship.

“In this game, you’re actually learning every day and I think this is the first year that I’m properly riding well,” says the man on course to finish a career-high fourth in the 2025/’26 jockeys’ championship.

Changing fortunes

“I’d be best friends with Keith Donoghue, and I look up to him as well. While he had lots of good winners down the years, I think it’s fair to say that he’s only really got going to his current level of success in the last few seasons - and that came after a few quieter years. I definitely struggled away for a couple of years too.

“We used to be depressed watching the television together on the weekends, saying ‘how are we ever going to get going?’ The two of us, we thought we’d never get going. For him to be flying, and ride the way he rides… He’s just class to watch and is a top man.”

He continues: “I struggled. I wasn’t happy riding 18 winners two seasons ago, and that was probably one of the years I spoke to Keith and asked that question as to how I’d ever get to where I want to be.

“Right now, I’m already looking forward to next year and trying to improve the numbers, the quality, everything. Garry Cribbin has become my agent and he’s top class at what he does. I know I should have been with him a lot sooner and I can see how driven he is too.”

If Meyler feels he is only becoming the finished article as a rider now, what have been the factors behind that progress?

“I think working hard is a big part of it, maturity is another, and then you have the experience you naturally accumulate over time,” he considers.

Mullins mastery

“I have to give a lot of credit to Emmet Mullins, though. Being around a professional like him, someone who has been through all parts of the game and understands it - he’s brought me on a lot in different ways as a rider.

“I think we’ve had 16 winners together in Ireland this season and another two in England. It’s great to feel the two of us are growing together numerically. Emmet is getting bigger and the stable is going the right way. Hopefully, we’ll have a long career together.”

The man who partnered Blow By Blow to victory in the 2018 Martin Pipe at the Cheltenham Festival has been quite the asset to Mullins too. That was evidenced when the pair combined to pull off a big-race coup in spectacular fashion on Easter Monday at Fairyhouse with well-backed favourite Soldier In Milan. At an eye-watering margin of 16 lengths, it’s difficult to remember a more dominant winner of the Boyle Sports Irish Grand National.

“I was only saying before racing the other day that a horse called The Bunny Boiler, who won the Irish Grand National in 2002, was my first memory of horse racing as a kid,” says Meyler.

“My next-door neighbours, the Dollards, owned him and that’s where my bug for horses came from. That started the whole thing. To win the race now, the feeling was just class. I wouldn’t be one for celebrating much, but I did give it large going past the line on him. It was something so, so special.”

Paul Byrne’s novice appeared to move through the race with complete ease, and that was quite extraordinary to watch given that this time 12 months ago, he had never even run under rules. He qualified for Fairyhouse with the bare four runs over fences.

Mullins’ sole Grade 1 success came alongside Meyler too. Feronily, who captured the three-mile Champion Novice Chase at the 2023 Punchestown Festival, had only debuted over fences 16 days earlier. Only the previous November, he landed a point-to-point, he was placed in a Dublin Racing Festival Grade 2 bumper that February, and a month later he contested a Kelso Grade 2 novice hurdle. A season of extraordinary campaigning ended with finishing fifth of 15 in the French Champion Hurdle. It was anything but your typical year in the life of a racehorse, but Mullins is no stranger to unorthodox strategies.

Does Meyler ever raise an eyebrow when hearing of his biggest supporter’s often audacious and outside-the-box plans?

“He definitely can do that,” quips the rider, who was only a 5lb-claimer when winning the 2016 Munster National on Tiger Roll.

Unorthodox approach

“From the perspective of an outsider looking in, you’d say he’s mad - but his CV speaks for itself. He’s won a Grand National at Aintree, an Irish National, had winners in Grade 1 company and at the Cheltenham Festival… He’s done some incredible things in a short space of time.

“I’m very appreciative of having this association with him. He’s my boss, at the end of the day, but he’s a friend as well. I could ring him and go for a pint with him in a heartbeat. It’s great to have that connection and be able to talk through different things. He can have different outlooks and it’s great to get his perspective. I have to say that Paul Byrne has been very good to me too. He’s obviously an owner on the up. I’m lucky to have the link-up I have with him too.”

Bagging a massive prize at Fairyhouse (at a festival where he emerged as leading rider on five winners) would have brought extra satisfaction, considering he was somewhat controversially denied the chance to double his top-level tally earlier this season.

Many felt it was an extremely harsh eight-day suspension (increased due to two previous careless riding breaches) that Meyler incurred at Navan in December. An appeals panel did not agree, however, and he missed out on the winning ride aboard Affordale Fury in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival.

“I thought it was crazy, to be honest,” he says of the suspension.

“I felt I had a good case going into the appeal, a good solicitor. I was shocked altogether. And then, of course, it was a sore one at the time for me at Christmas. It was very tough. As far as the result went at Leopardstown, though, it was still great for the Pollys and Noel to get a Grade 1 win with the horse, and obviously for Sam [Ewing] to step in too.

Ups and downs

“It’s been lovely that we did get the bounce of the ball after Galway with some nice winners, and again after Christmas. There have been plenty of bouncing balls, in fairness! I’m getting used to the ups and downs of it all. Things have been going well and I’m riding with plenty of confidence.”

It was noticeable in the immediate aftermath of the Easter victory that there was an outpouring of goodwill towards the winning jockey from his weighing room colleagues. This was clearly a popular success amongst Ireland’s riding fraternity, and Meyler touched on the passing of Michael O’Sullivan as something that had forged an even stronger bond between jockeys in the most challenging of times.

“Michael left a mark on everyone he encountered. It’d bring a tear to your eye just talking about him now,” Meyler says.

“He’s definitely looking down on us and is so sorely missed. There’s a great bunch of lads in the weighing room at the moment. After such a horrible thing happened, it brought us close. It definitely made us tighter together.”

Getting to share the Irish National success with family only added to the occasion at Fairyhouse. The pride beaming from Meyler’s father Ray was infectious in an interview on RTÉ Sport’s social media channels.

“It was great to have the family there. Mammy [Anne Marie] was there too and what she did for me throughout my school years, bringing me here and there… She did everything for me,” Meyler says.

“To have my nephew and godson, Jim, there on the day was something that meant a lot too. He was lapping up all the attention in the thick of it! I know he’s only three, but hopefully he’ll remember that day when he’s older. You do appreciate having those memories with him there. Hopefully, we’ll all be around for many more years of those big days together.”

If Meyler is correct in his take that he’s only truly finding his feet as a rider this season, it surely won’t be the last time we see young Jim in the thick of his uncle’s big-race celebrations. This rollercoaster campaign might be just the beginning.

Meyler on…

Something most people wouldn’t know about him.

“I live a very boring life! I suppose I love GAA and I missed out on a Minor All-Ireland Hurling [medal] with Kilkenny when playing underage. I had gone to England for a year at that time.”

What he listens to in the car on the way to the races?

“Usually music. I could have anything on from Frank Sinatra to [DJ] Black Coffee.”

What race he would most like to add to his CV?

“A Cheltenham Gold Cup would obviously be special, although maybe I should say the Thyestes, being from Kilkenny.”

His prospects of another National victory today in the Scottish equivalent at Ayr.

“I’m looking forward to riding Promontory for Sarah Connell, after he won the Dublin National last time. He might be an outsider, but if he can come forward from his run at Leopardstown, he’ll be thereabouts. He jumps well and is a dour stayer, which you’d think fits the criteria for the race.”

His toughest rider to face in a finish?

“Jack Kennedy.”

Describing Emmet Mullins in three words.

“Canny. Witty. Professional.”