NOEL Meade has been involved in some of the most iconic moments of the Cheltenham Festival (good and bad) over the last few decades.

Think of images like Harchibald cruising on the run-in of the 2005 Champion Hurdle but not being able to get past Hardy Eustace. Sausalito Bay mastering Best Mate in the 2000 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Nicanor turning over Denman in the 2006 Royal and Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle and Hill Society losing out by a nostril in the 1998 Arkle Chase, when it took 20 minutes for the result to be called. Paul Carberry doing his best on Harbour Pilot to foil Best Mate’s three Gold Cups in a row.

Meade goes to the meeting this year with a small but select team looking for more success, and hopefully less drama.

The booking of Colin Keane for The Mourne Rambler in the Champion Bumper adds another level of intrigue to the race. Savills Chase winner Affordale Fury is a player in a wide-open Gold Cup while stable stalwart Helvic Dream has a live chance in the County Hurdle.

Preparations are going smoothly a week out from the meeting but it is a nervy time for trainers, as he relates;

“It is a case of so far so good with them. Affordale just finished his last piece of real fast work [Tuesday], we took him away for it. He seems in good shape. He has recovered from the muscle issue that caused him to be pulled-up in the Irish Gold Cup.

“We have Helvic Dream in the County, who is in fantastic form. What a horse he has been for us, a fantastic horse. Look, it is a nervous time and I feel for Barry Connell with Marine Nationale because I wouldn’t say any horse is looked after better than him and still something goes wrong. That is racing, it would break your heart. You would want to have nerves of steel to stick it!”

Flat jockeys

While there is a precedent of flat jockeys riding in the bumper at Cheltenham (Jamie Spencer won the 2002 race on Pizarro), Meade has been asked plenty about why he chose to put Colin Keane up on his leading fancy. He explains;

“Colin comes to ride work for me once a week. Up until the time he got the Juddmonte job, I had second call on him behind Ger [Lyons] and he rode lots of winners for me but now, obviously, I don’t see too much of him.

“But it was an easy decision to put him up, this is a flat race and he is the best flat jockey in Ireland! But he is not like one of those ordinary flat jockeys, he is a horseman. He was brought up hunting, showjumping, pony racing and all that so nobody is going to frighten Colin, he wouldn’t be a timid sort of fella. Some fellas I might be worried about putting them up over there but not him. Hopefully now, we can get him home from Dubai.

“The bumper can be a messy race with not much pace but we think The Mourne Rambler has enough ‘boot’ for it even if that happens, he isn’t short of pace.”

While fans of the sport are waiting with fevered excitement for the action to get going, Meade elaborates on his general feeling towards the meeting, which is likely shared by most of his peers;

“Look, Cheltenham is fantastic and this that and the other but for jockeys and trainers, it is a difficult time and a difficult place. It doesn’t matter if you are at the top or bottom of the ranks. It is very hard to train or ride a winner.

Tough week

“Obviously, the more horses you have and better ones it is easier but it doesn’t always happen either. You saw last year how Gordon had to wait until the last race for a winner, even though a lot of his horses ran really well. It can be a very tough week. It doesn’t matter if you have one horse or 50 over there, it is stressful.”

However, in terms of the way he targets the meeting, Meade is probably different from many other trainers;

“I always viewed Cheltenham, maybe to my own detriment, different to a lot of people. As far as I was concerned, and still am, Cheltenham is about champions and it has been watered down far too much.

“I always felt that when you are going for Cheltenham, you are going for gold. I remember Harbour Pilot was third in two of Best Mate’s Gold Cups but the first year he would almost certainly have won the Ultima Handicap Chase, I don’t know what it was called back then but I wanted to win a Gold Cup. But you can’t win one if you don’t run in it!

“There were other horses that we did similar with, that ran very well in their races but would have won handicaps if we had run them. But I always felt that was what Cheltenham was about and I still do feel.”

First winner

However, when everything goes right over there, it is a tremendous feeling, especially your first winner,” as he remembers;

“My first win [with Sausilito Bay in 2000 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle] is probably my fondest memory. At the time, I had been pipped on the post and horses falling and different things go wrong before, so it was more relief than anything else when he won.

“Though for two of the subsequent winners I wasn’t even there. I was at home when Go Native won the Supreme [2009] because I was just after coming out of hospital with a back operation and also Jeff Kidder [won 2021 Fred Winter] because that was during Covid.”

Nicanor winning the 2006 Royal and Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle must have been a sweet success also?

“Oh yes”, he replied. “Nicanor was a very good horse. I had two very good horses in that race that year, Mr Nosie was fourth. But Nicanor was improving all the time. He was a big, gangly French horse who kept improving as he was going along.

“He went on to win at Punchestown after but, unfortunately, got a ‘leg’ and that really ended his career but he could have been very special.”

But, after some thought, Meade acknowledges that the most lasting memory he has of Cheltenham is of Harchibald jumping the last, thinking he was going to win the Champion Hurdle and getting beaten.

Wrong side

It is a race that has probably sparked as much debate subsequently as any other in living memory but what was it like to have been on the wrong side of that result?

He recalls: “I watched the race beside Dessie Hughes and he tapped me on the shoulder at the last to say ‘well done’ but at the time they got to the line I had to turn around to say ‘well done’ to him! It was hard to take, obviously, it was like someone pulled the rug out from under you.

Too well

“What happened, happened and that was it but I think there were ways he could have won. He was certainly travelling like the winner all the way and Paul [Carberry] always maintained that he took the second-last too well and when they opened up for the last, he went when he would have preferred not to.

“But anyway, what is done is done but it was gutwrenching and I don’t think you can ever forget about it. He was a gent of a horse but, unfortunately, whenever he ran on soft, sticky ground, he used to pull something in his hindquarters and we never could find out what it was.

“I think if we had him now, we would have been able to manage him better because veterinary medicine has come on so much since. But he still was a fantastic horse, was a gorgeous-looking horse as well and always will be my favourite.”

While it is unlikely Noel Meade will be involved in such a dramatic moment as that again, he does have prospects of being closely involved in some of the big skirmishes this year and no-one would begrudge him another big-race Cheltenham win.