Noel Meade rolled back the years and secured Tote Galway Plate glory on Wednesday evening when Pinkerton solved the summer’s most coveted steeplechase puzzle.
The 73-year-old Co Meath trainer, seven times jumps champion before Willie Mullins’s hegemony began with a vengeance, has a long history of landing the festival’s top prizes including back-to-back Galway Hurdle victories with Pinch Hitter in 1982-83.
It took him three decades more to notch up Plate glory with Road To Riches in 2014 and since then he has focused more and more on the flat. Helvic Dream supplied Group One glory in the 2021 Tattersalls Gold Cup.
However, under an inspired ride from Donagh Meyler, Pinkerton defied 20-1 odds to land a thrilling Plate battle from the Gordon Elliott pair, Duffle Coast and Zanahiyr, as just a length covered the first three.
BHA says ‘no causal link’ found between Cheltenham fatalities
Willie Mullins set to take wraps off some of his biggest stars at Punchestown
Fact To File could head formidable JP McManus team into John Durkan test
Top amateur Derek O’Connor to team up with Fastorslow for John Durkan Chase at Punchestown
It was a second Plate too for Meyler who rode Lord Scoundrel for Elliott in 2016 only to this time deny his old ally a record fifth success in the race.
A hitherto frustrating week for the 28-year-old Kilkenny jockey, with a trio of runner-up placings for Emmet Mullins, changed in style as the diminutive winner completed a hat-trick.
“It’s definitely special to win it again. He done everything right, travelled and jumped amazing. He was deadly everywhere, made life a lot easier for myself,” Meyler said.
Meade’s Jese Evans will try to make it fourth time lucky in Thursday’s Galway Hurdle – having finished runner-up in the last two years – and the omens for his chance got even better when Meade’s Monasterboice landed the flat race after the Plate.
“The big races here are huge and this is one of the biggest ones,” said a delighted Meade who snapped up Meyler’s services after Pinkerton’s regular rider Sam Ewing was claimed to ride Elliott’s Tullybeg. He finished 14th.
“Donagh was very good on him. I was trying to get Sam off Gordon – he said we might be great friends, but this is war!
“I’ve always had great time for Donagh. He’s a super horseman, beautiful hands and the horse jumped great for him. He was afraid he was going to get there too soon he was going that well. He’s been running over two miles, and we weren’t sure whether he would stay,” he added.
Those doubts were banished with a gritty display that called on all Meyler’s strength and big-race know-how on the back of other previous big handicap successes such as Anibale Fly in the Paddy Power and a Munster National on a certain Tiger Roll.
It was a frustrating outcome for Elliott who saddled six of the 22 runners although he said: “They’ve both run blinders [second and third]. You’d have to be delighted with them and I’m over the moon for Noel. We’ve been great pals over the years.”
Duffle Coat’s rider Danny Gilligan got an eight-day suspension for his use of the whip in the big race. Mike O’Connor on the fourth home, Life In The Park, got 16 days after breaching the whip rules for a fourth time.
Earlier, in-form trainer Ross O’Sullivan combined with jockey Darragh O’Keeffe for an all-jumping double. Talk In The Park justified significant market support to land a handicap hurdle while Champella was a 10-1 winner of the mares handicap. It meant O’Sullivan’s last four runners have won.
Jack Kennedy, third on Zanahiyr in the Plate, got off the mark for the week when Lightkeeper ran out an 11-1 winner of the opening maiden hurdle. The winner is owned by a syndicate that includes Gordon Elliott’s father.
Amateur jockey Tom Hamilton plans to continue his racing career in Australia and wound up his riding days here with a smooth success for Joseph O’Brien on Shoda in a maiden. O’Brien doubled up in the last when topweight Busselton denied a gamble on Emmet Mullins’s new recruit Jacovec Cavern.
At Goodwood, Aidan O’Brien’s Henry Longfellow couldn’t justify 11-10 favouritism in the Sussex Stakes and could only manage fourth behind Godolphin’s 2,000 Guineas hero, Notable Speech.
It was comprehensive form reversal from Royal Ascot where Henry Longfellow was runner-up to Rosallion while Notable Speech lost his unbeaten record with a subpar performance.
The bounce back to form was spectacular and it delivered both trainer Charlie Appleby and jockey William Buick a first success in the prestigious mile contest.
“When you have an unbeaten classic winner going into a St James’s Palace Stakes and you’re beaten the way we were, of course you walk away disappointed.
“But I was happier to be beaten the way we were than to finish second or third and say we weren’t good enough. He just didn’t turn up, simple as that. The question will probably always be asked, and I will probably never have the answer to it, unfortunately,” said Appleby.
Galway’s Day Three crowd of 16,023 was down from last year’s corresponding figure of 16,604.
