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Navan Meath
By Enda McElhinney
Meade has been champion trainer over jumps in Ireland on seven occasions and has enjoyed multiple Grade 1 scores both in Britain and at home.
He had a famous association with the mercurial rider Paul Carberry and the much-loved crack hurdler, Harchibald.
Noel Meade started training in 1970 with one horse, Tu Va, owned in partnership with his great friend, Mick Condra.
Meade partnered Tu Va to win his maiden over hurdles at Wexford in the summer of 1971 and, while it would be a few more years before his own standing began to grow, he never forgot that breakthrough and it was the only horse he ever rode to success.
Meade decided to name his stables after Tu Va, and the modern yard at his Co Meath base is a testament to his standing in the sport.
Spread over 175 acres in the Meath countryside, Tu Va Stables boasts six-furlong gallops on both the turf and all-weather, an equine spa and an array of obstacles for schooling horses over jumps.
Meade's name first came to wider prominence in 1978 when Sweet Mint won what is now the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot under Walter Swinburn.
Though the race wasn't designated as a Group 1 for many years afterwards, it was a standout moment on Meade's journey.
He continued to focus on the Flat into the early 1980s with names like Pinch Hitter and Steel Duke but it would eventually be in the National Hunt code where Meade really hit the big time.
In the 1990s, Meade began to switch his focus to the jumps scene. The early years were lean and laced with bad luck.
Punchestown Champion Bumper winner Tiananmen Square suffered an injury plagued career, while the 1995 Drinmore Novice Chase winner Johnny Setaside died before he fulfilled his potential.
Cardinal Hill, winner of the 1999 Punchestown Champion Novice Hurdle, was thought to be a superstar in the making but a bout of colic took him. That was a moment that left Meade with a lot to ponder."The loss of Cardinal Hill was particularly hard to take. People say that it's all part of the game and that is true to an extent, but that particular horse was very close to my heart and his death had a big impact on me," he later said.
Finally, after some disappointments, Meade had his first Cheltenham Festival win in 2000 as Sausilito Bay bagged the Supreme Novices' Hurdle under Carberry.
The same team would score nine years later with Go Native, winner of a Fighting Fifth Hurdle and a Christmas Hurdle later in 2009.
Nicanor (2006), Very Wood (2014) and Jeff Kidder (2021) would add to Meade's novice hurdle successes in the Cotswolds, while the Gigginstown House Stud-owned Road To Respect landed the Plate Handicap Chase in 2017 for Meade's sole Festival success over fences to date.
Perhaps no horse is more intrinsically linked with Meade and Carberry than Harchibald, a prolific winner over hurdles in his outstanding career.
He won the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in November 2004, beating Inglis Drever, and denied Rooster Booster in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton a month later under a stereotypical Carberry ride as they arrived on the scene in the shadows of the post to pick off the long-time leader.
At Cheltenham the following spring, Champion Hurdle glory was surely looming as Harchibald eyeballed Hardy Eustace and Brace Inca up the run-in.
Carberry was motionless, seemingly loaded with horse underneath him, but Hardy Eustace was game and kept digging in to win by a neck as Harchibald failed to get past.
He would snare more Grade 1 glory in the future but Harchibald was always labelled a bit quirky after that.
