Every trainer likes to succeed at their local track, but few accomplish it as regularly as Noel Meade. He has the prospects to emphasise that point yet again at Navan today.
Meade is primarily a National Hunt trainer, but he is the sixth most successful Irish handler on the flat this term and Eternal Night looks a good bet to solidify his position in the Beauparc Maiden.
It's something of a surprise that the Night Shift colt hasn't broken his duck so far, but overall his form looks more than adequate for this.
A runner-up to Superiority at the Curragh last time, he also has placed efforts to Union Project at Leopardstown and Father Murphy at Fairyhouse to his credit. The forecast good to firm going with watering should not be a problem, and with stamina doubts over Delray, and Misniuil not having run in over two months, this looks an ideal winning opportunity for Eternal Night.
An hour later there will be some long faces in the Meade camp if Greenstead doesn't pick up the Tara Hurdle. A length-and-a-half runner-up to his ill-fated former stable companion Cardinal Hill in the Champion Novice Hurdle, Greenstead is rated well clear of the likes of Pegus First and Twin Gale, while the veteran Merry Gale will be an interesting runner without quite troubling the younger horse.
Meade will also be fancying his chances in the Newgrange Handicap Hurdle with Fiddlers Bow. This is an admittedly trappy contest, but there was a lot to like about his battling three-quarter-length defeat of Oliver's Island at Dundalk, and Fiddlers Bow does get a chunk of weight from the likely favourite Quinze.
Others to look out for today could be Pat Hughes' Very Tempting, a decent third to Brief Decline in a Gowran maiden, who goes in the bumper, while Times O'War will be no back number in the Castletown Handicap as he tries to graduate from the Laytown sand to Navan's stiff test. Gowran Park tomorrow has a £7,997 jackpot carryover, but the bet of the day could be in the non-jackpot AIB Maiden.
Jim Bolger's string are hitting form now, and while Chancery was a rather disappointing fifth to Superiority at the Curragh last time, that was on soft ground. As a son of Bolger's Irish Derby and King George winner St Jovite, Chancery should relish a return to better going.
Second Empire, the leading Irish two-year-old of 1997, has been forced into retirement by recurring muscle problems in his hind quarters, it emerged yesterday. The 640,000 guineas yearling was found to be very lame at Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle stables on Thursday morning and then went to Coolmore Stud.
"Everyone here at Ballydoyle is extremely disappointed," O'Brien explained. "We all know he had so much unrealised potential. But his muscle problem was making him very difficult to train and it wouldn't be fair to the horse to try to persevere with him.
"It's best that we remember him for his unbeaten efforts as a two-year-old, including his impressive wins in the Prix de Chenes and the Grand Criterium, and for his very easy win in the Desmond Stakes last season," the trainer added.
