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Meld Stakes
The Meld Stakes is a Group 3 flat horse race in Ireland open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Leopardstown over a distance of 1 mile and 1 furlong (1,811 metres), and it is scheduled to take place each year in July. The event was formerly contested over 1 mile and 4 furlongs, and it used to be held at the Curragh in late August or early September. It was previously known as the Brownstown Stakes, and for a period it was restricted to fillies and mares. It was renamed in honour of the successful filly Meld in the 1980s. The race was reopened to male horses and cut to 1 mile and 2 furlongs in 1993. It was switched to July in 1994. It was transferred to Leopardstown in 2003, and it was shortened to 1 mile and 1 furlong in 2010. The 2014 race was run at the Curragh over 1 mile 2 furlongs. The name Brownstown Stakes is now given to a race at Fairyhouse Racecourse. Records Most successful horse (3 wins): * Fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leopardstown Racecourse
Leopardstown Racecourse is an Ireland, Irish horse-racing venue, located in Leopardstown, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, 8 km south of the Dublin city centre. Like the majority of Irish courses, it hosts both National Hunt and Flat racing. The course, built by Captain George Quin and modelled on Sandown Park Racecourse in England, was completed in 1888 and acquired by the Horse Racing Ireland, Horse Racing Board of Ireland in 1967. Many important races are held here and racing takes place all year round, with about 22 meetings per year. In 1941, noted Royal Air Force pilot Hugh Verity, who flew many secret agents at night into and out of farm fields in France, force landed on the Race Course. He was interned briefly before escaping back to England. The ''Leopardstown Hall of Fame'' honours famous Irish horse racing trainers, jockeys and horses like, Vincent O'Brien, Tom Dreaper, Pat Taaffe and Pat Eddery, Arkle, Dawn Run, Levmoss and Nijinsky II, Nijinsky. Facilities Leopar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Smullen
Patrick Joseph Smullen (22 May 1977 – 15 September 2020), was an Irish jockey who won the Irish flat racing Champion Jockey title nine times. In a career running from 1992 to 2018 he rode 1,845 winners in Ireland and 47 in Britain. Amongst his biggest successes were riding Harzand (horse), Harzand to victories in the Epsom Derby and Irish Derby in 2016. He was stable jockey to Dermot Weld from 1999 until 2018. Background and apprenticeship Smullen was born in County Offaly and was introduced to riding and racing by his brother Sean, who worked for trainer Joanna Morgan. He was then apprenticed to local trainer Tommy Lacy, who provided him with his first winner, Vicosa, at Dundalk in 1993. Smullen won the Irish apprentice championship in 1995 and 1996. Career Smullen spent two years as a stable jockey to John Oxx, winning his first Group races, Group 1 race, the Moyglare Stud Stakes, on Tarascon for trainer Tommy Stack at Curragh Racecourse, the Curragh in 1997. In 1999 he be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Kinane
Michael J. Kinane (born 22 June 1959, Killenaule, County Tipperary) is an Irish former flat racing jockey. He had a 34-year career, retiring on 8 December 2009. A prolific winner of the Irish, English and French Classic races over two decades, Kinane has ridden winners in the 2,000 Guineas four times, The Derby three times, the Melbourne Cup in Australia and, in the United States, the Belmont Stakes once. Kinane also has four wins in Breeders' Cup races. He has been Irish Champion Jockey on 13 occasions. He first came to prominence as the stable jockey to Liam Browne winning the 1982 Irish 2000 Guineas and St James Palace Stakes at Ascot, both on Dara Monarch, and finishing 2nd in the 1983 Epsom Derby on Carlingford Castle, before moving to Dermot Weld. He was later retained by John Magnier and Aidan O'Brien as stable jockey at Ballydoyle for many years prior to joining leading Irish flat trainer John Oxx. He became one of the world's elite jockeys and exc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Hern
William Richard Hern (20 January 1921 – 22 May 2002) was an English Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and winner of sixteen British Classic Races between 1962 and 1995, and was Champion Trainer on four occasions. Following his early career in the Army (Major), he became a riding instructor, including a spell as instructor to the Olympic gold medal-winning team in 1952. His first training licence was as private trainer to Major Lionel Holliday in 1958, at La Grange Stables in Newmarket, before moving to West Ilsley at the end of the 1962 season to take over from R. J. "Jack" Colling. Hern became a St. Leger Stakes specialist, winning the event six times. He produced three Epsom Derby winners in Troy (1979), Henbit (1980) and Nashwan (1989), who also won the 2,000 Guineas and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Hern trained Brigadier Gerard who was only beaten once in eighteen races. Other major winners include Sun Princess, Dayjur, Hethersett, Bireme, Bustino, L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willie Carson
William Fisher Hunter Carson, OBE (born 16 November 1942) is a retired jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. Life and career Best known as "Willie", Carson was born in Stirling, Scotland in 1942. He was apprenticed to Captain Gerald Armstrong at his stables at Tupgill, North Yorkshire. His first winner in Britain was Pinker's Pond in a seven-furlong apprentice handicap at Catterick Bridge Racecourse on 19 July 1962. He was British Champion Jockey five times (1972, 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1983), won 17 British Classic Races, and passed 100 winners in a season 23 times for a total of 3,828 wins, making him the fourth most successful jockey in Great Britain. Willie Carson's best season as a jockey came in 1990 when he rode 187 winners. This included riding six winners at Newcastle Racecourse on 30 June, making Carson one of only four jockeys to ride six winners at one meeting during the 20th century. However, he came second in the 1990 jockeys' champio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Reid (jockey)
John Andrew Reid (born 6 August 1955 in Banbridge County Down, Northern Ireland) is a retired flat race jockey. Reid served as an apprentice in his native Ireland to Leslie Crawford, before moving to England and joining Verley Bewicke. His first Classic victory came in the 1982 1,000 Guineas aboard On The House. His first major Group 1 race win came in the 1978 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Ile de Bourbon. Reid won this race for a second time in 1997 on Swain, when the top-class thoroughbreds Helissio, Singspiel and Pilsudski were all beaten off. His biggest victory came on Dr Devious in the 1992 Epsom Derby for the trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam. He also won the 1988 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Tony Bin. John was also successful in the 1,000 Guineas in 1994 on Las Meninas and in the St. Leger Stakes in 1998 on Nedawi. Reid considered retirement in 1999 after a heavy fall at Kempton Park, but kept going for another two years until announcing his retire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Dunlop (racehorse Trainer)
John Leeper Dunlop (10 July 1939 – 7 July 2018) was an English race horse trainer based in Arundel, Sussex. He trained the winners of 74 Group One races, including 10 British Classics, with over 3000 winners in total. He was the British flat racing Champion Trainer in 1995. Born in Tetbury, he first took out a training licence in 1966. After a two-year apprenticeship with Neville Dent and Gordon Smyth he took over Castle Stables in Arundel, on the Duke of Norfolk's estate. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of Middle Eastern influences in British horseracing, training Hatta, Sheikh Mohammed's first winner as an owner at Brighton in 1977. He was also associated with Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum over a period of three decades, training horses such as Salsabil, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks and Irish Derby. The main jockeys with which he was associated include the Australian Ron Hutchinson, Willie Carson, Pat Eddery and Lester Piggott . In later years he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Opale (horse)
Opale (18 April 1980 – after 1992) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. Unraced as a juvenile she won her first three races as a three-year-old in 1983 and later finished second in the Princess Royal Stakes. In the following year, she was placed in the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and won the Meld Stakes before recording her biggest success in the Irish St. Leger. On her final appearance, she was disqualified after finishing first in the Premio Roma. After her retirement from racing, she became a broodmare and produced several minor winners. Her last recorded foal was born in 1992. Background Opale was a "big, rangy" chestnut mare with a white blaze and white socks on her hind legs bred in England by the Snailwell Stud. During her racing career, she was owned by Snailwell and trained by Alec Stewart in Newmarket, Suffolk. Her sire Busted was the British Horse of the Year in 1967, when he won the Eclipse Stakes and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent O'Brien
Vincent O'Brien (9 April 1917 – 1 June 2009) was an Irish horse racing, race horse horse trainer, trainer from Churchtown, County Cork, Churchtown, County Cork, Ireland. In 2003 he was voted the greatest influence in horse racing history in a worldwide poll hosted by the ''Racing Post''. In earlier ''Racing Post'' polls he was voted the best ever trainer of National Hunt racing, national hunt and of flat race, flat racehorses. He trained six horses to win the Epsom Derby, won three Grand Nationals in succession and trained the only British Triple Crown winner, Nijinsky II, Nijinsky, since the Second World War. He was twice British flat racing Champion Trainer, British champion trainer in flat racing and also twice in national hunt racing; the only trainer in history to have been champion under both rules. Aidan O'Brien (no relation) took over the Ballydoyle stables after his retirement. The National Hunt years His training career started in 1944. That year, he did the Irish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pat Eddery
Patrick James John Eddery (18 March 1952 – 10 November 2015) was an Irish flat racing jockey and trainer. He rode three winners of the Derby and was Champion Jockey on eleven occasions. He rode the winners of 4,632 British flat races, a figure exceeded only by Sir Gordon Richards. Background Eddery was born in Newbridge, County Kildare, less than 2 miles from the Curragh Racecourse, and his birth was registered in Dublin. He was the fifth child of Jimmy Eddery, a jockey who rode Panaslipper to win the Irish Derby in 1955, and Josephine (the daughter of jockey Jack Moylan). His brother, Paul, also went on to become a jockey. He attended the Patrician Brothers' Primary School in Newbridge and when the family later moved to Blackrock, the Oatlands Primary School in Stillorgan. Riding career Since early childhood, Pat Eddery's most frequent dreams were to be the champion jockey and winning the Derby. Eddery began his career as an apprentice jockey in Ireland with the st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Bolger (racehorse Trainer)
James S. Bolger (born 25 December 1941) is a thoroughbred racehorse trainer and breeder based in Coolcullen in County Kilkenny. For many years, he has been recognised as one of the racing greats in Ireland. Aidan O'Brien, Tony McCoy and Paul Carberry were all apprenticed to him before gaining professional recognition in their own right. During the 2006 flat season, Bolger trained Teofilo to go unbeaten at the age of two. This five-race unbeaten streak included victories in the Group 1 National Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes. Talk of an English Triple Crown bid was imminent, but Teofilo suffered a career-ending injury in the lead up to the 2,000 Guineas and never saw a racecourse again. Bolger was criticized for his handling of this situation. 2007 saw another Bolger-bred star emerge in the shape of New Approach. He followed the same path as Teofilo during his two-year-old career and was unbeaten. In 2008, Bolger informed the public that New Approach would go to Newmarket for the G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dermot Weld
Dermot K. Weld (born 29 July 1948), a former jockey is one of Ireland's most successful racehorse trainers. He holds the record for the most winners trained in Ireland (2,578 set in August 2000). Weld maintains his stable, Rosewell House, in Curragh, Ireland. He is married, with two sons. Irish bookmakers, Paddy Power, tried to launch a campaign to change the name of the Galway Races to the Dermot Weld Retirement Fund Races; however, it proved to be unsuccessful. He was played by Brendan Gleeson in the feature film '' The Cup''. Education Educated at Newbridge College, a qualified veterinarian ( UCD 1970). In 2016, Weld was awarded UCD Alumnus of the Year in Veterinary Medicine. Major wins Ireland * Irish 1000 Guineas - (5) - '' Prince's Polly (1982), Trusted Partner (1988), Nightime (2006), Bethrah (2010), Homeless Songs (2022)'' * Irish 2000 Guineas - (1) - ''Flash of Steel (1986)'' * Irish Derby - (3) - ''Zagreb (1996), Grey Swallow (2004), Harzand (2016)'' * Irish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
