Not too late to hitch your wagon to Meade’s runaway train
Meade’s strike rate has been quite phenomenal and he is the easiest yard in the world to follow, because there is absolutely no messing.
When a Meade horse arrives onto the track, you can be virtually certain it will be fit, superbly prepared and ready to run for its life.
Just look at the number of bumper horses that have gone in at the first time of asking of late, Muirhead and Goldmar at Gowran Park, Cottage Oak (Down Royal), Chateua d’Eau (Punchestown) and Sky Hall (Naas).
Most trainers and jockeys will tell you how difficult it is to win with a horse having a first run over hurdles.
When it comes to Meade inmates, however, that just doesn’t seem to be a terribly important consideration.
He repeatedly produces horses to do the business on their initial outing over flights. There are several recent examples: Muirhead at Down Royal on Saturday for instance. Then you have Rinroe (Sligo), Antipode (Naas), Crooked Street (Cork), The Dotted Line (Gowran Park), Gem Daly (Punchestown) and Silverhead (Punchestown).
Both Antipode and Silverhead are worth a further mention, on the basis that they were both actually having their first ever runs.
Then there’s Narquois, who won at Punchestown last week. He was returning from a break of 363 days, but never came off the bridle.
Mr Robert, over fences, is another Meade success story, having shown little until joining him. He landed some smashing bets, 20-1 to 10-1, first time up for the trainer at Navan in September.
A faller subsequently at Punchestown, he made it two from three for his new yard when scoring at Cork.
And speaking of Cork that was some training performance by Meade to get Mattock Ranger to win Sunday’s Grand National at the track.
Aitmatov is another notable money-spinner for the man. Already the owners of this horse have two nice prizes tucked away, at Punchestown and Down Royal.
Inevitably, the Meade bubble will burst at some stage. But, right now, only a fool wouldn’t keep him on one’s side.
AT the moment the French authorities are battling to keep their tote monopoly, the PMU, as the bookmakers seek to get into the country.
Obviously, tensions are running high and, when people are under pressure, they can say things which they may well live to regret.
Accepting that this is a massive issue for the French, it was, nevertheless, extraordinary to note the outburst of Criquette Head-Maarek, who is president of the French Trainer’s Association.
She said: “The PMU works very well and helps us to live. We don’t want the bookmakers to take bets and then give us nothing back.
“If they were honest people there would be no problem, but the bookmaker is a man born dishonest.”
The poor woman might be a half-decent trainer, but when it comes to bookmakers she knows less than nothing.
A bookmaker can only survive in this game by being honest and scrupulously so. Anything less and they will soon find that no one wants to play.
And while on the subject of bookmakers, when is this complete mess at Dundalk going to be resolved? It now seems that the Irish National Bookmakers’ Association may be about to take legal proceedings against Dundalk for “breach of contract.”
Dundalk manager, Jim Martin, apparently believes that the way forward is the HRI suggestion that they all go along with binding arbitration.
Rubbish. The bookmakers will never agree to binding arbitration and are dead right too. This has to be thrashed out between the relevant parties with everything on the table.
We have Dundalk again tomorrow night, with just a handful of layers in attendance. Granted another slice of luck, maybe the fog will close in one more time and save everyone’s blushes.
