Meade celebrates 3,000th career winner as trainer at Fairyhouse

Noel Meade was thrilled to reach a major milestone at Fairyhouse on Tuesday as Mickey Cohen provided him with a 3,000th career winner.

The 75-year-old was just 19 when first taking out his licence in 1970. Tu Va was the first horse in his care and having ridden him to become his first winner as a trainer at Wexford in 1971, his stables in Castletown in County Meath are now named in his honour.

Having reached the 2,999-winner mark with Wynette at Navan on October 21, Meade has had to wait a while before reaching the figure of 3,000, but did so in thrilling fashion as 15-2 shot Mickey Cohen landed the Christmas Parties At Fairyhouse December 12th Handicap Hurdle by a nose in the hands of Sam Ewing.

Meade told the Press Association: “I wasn’t aware I was coming up to reaching it (3,000 winner) and since I was told it’s been like looking for hen’s teeth! I just couldn’t seem to get one past the post and I thought this one was beat as well. Thankfully he got up and it’s great.”

Ewing said: “I’ve only ridden a small amount of those 3,000 winners for Noel but I’ve been very lucky with him. It’s a pleasure to be the one who got to do it.

“The horse did it the hard way as well. He missed a lot of hurdles on the way around but he was good at the last. I thought I might have got there at the line but it was tight so I didn’t know.”

Meade claimed Royal Ascot success in 1978 after Sweet Mint won the Cork and Orrery Stakes, the forerunner to what is now the Group One Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, before gradually switching his attention to the National Hunt game, becoming Ireland’s champion National Hunt trainer on seven occasions.

Dozens of Grade One winners have emerged from his yard over the years including Road To Respect, Harchibald, Go Native and last year’s Savills Chase winner Affordale Fury, while he has trained seven winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the most recent being The Mourne Rambler in the Champion Bumper in March.

Other career highlights include the Irish Grand National triumph of The Bunny Boiler in 2002 and a first Group One winner on the Flat with Helvic Dream in the 2021 Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh.

Willie Mullins, Aidan O’Brien and Dermot Weld are the only active Irish trainers to have trained more winners than Meade.

“I have to say I have enjoyed every minute of my training career, I love what I do and it’s a pleasure to be able to make a living out of doing something I enjoy so much,” the trainer added.

“It’s something I can be proud of. It might be something that becomes more common with the yards they have now and the amount of racing there is, but over the years and when we were at our peak, there wasn’t as much racing and there wasn’t as many horses. We’re very happy to have achieved this anyway.

“All of the winners are important and great but one that really stands out and I enjoyed more than any was Pinch Hitter winning at the Galway Festival in 1981. The horse belonged to a very good friend of mine and it’s one that has always stuck out.

“But they are all great, all those big races we’ve been lucky to win down the years – the bigger they are the more you enjoy them and we’ve had some lovely horses under both codes.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have some great jockeys riding for me over the years and I’m still incredibly lucky to be able to do this for a job.”