Jason whips up a storm at Cheltenham

Jered didn"t win the big race at Punchestown on Sunday and while I was disappointed, I was very encouraged by his display on very heavy ground. I knew he would struggle against Sizing Europe on that type of ground, but I couldn"t believe the price of Hardy Eustace, I think some people backed him at 20/1. That was an amazing price in a four-horse race for a horse that won the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham on two occasions. I think Sizing Europe"s attempt to knock the sting out of us backfired a little in favour of Hardy Eustace. I was reasonably happy with the way Jered ran, he jumped well and it was his first run against that type of opposition. I don"t know where he will go next, he could run here or at Kempton at Christmas, it"s a case of wait and see how things go. Amateur jockey Jason McKeown has obviously learned a lot of tricks from his time here in Castletown and he rode his first winner at Cheltenham, from only his second ride at the track, on Friday. It was great that he met such an agreeable colleague out on the racecourse and that he was able to borrow a vital piece of equipment and go on and win the race The stewards had a look at it and handed out a two-day ban for what they described as 'improper riding" and I"m sure Jason will remember the day he rode a winner at Cheltenham and took the whip off another jockey to do so. Jason lost his whip when his horse, Hoopy, trained by Gordon Elliott, made a mistake early on, but armed with a replacement from the other jockey, Donal Devereux, who was out of contention at the time, he conjured up a victory and gave the crowd plenty to talk about in the process. I haven"t had a chance to speak to Jason about it yet, but it wasn"t the first time I witnessed something like this. I can go back to a handicap hurdle in Kilbeggan about 30 years ago when Joe (JP) Byrne did the same thing, Michael Maguire was the other jockey who was involved, but Joe won the race for me at the Westmeath track. There was plenty of debate at Cheltenham on Friday, especially when Davy Russell appeared to have taken a short cut in the cross-country race on Dix Villez which is owned by Michael O"Leary, but it turned out that the jockey had done his homework and the short cut was above board. This was announced after a stewards inquiry although Davy Russell didn"t appear to have any concerns about the outcome when he was interviewed immediately after the race. I suppose it took a cute Cork man to find the shortest way home on this occasion, but I think he may have given Michael O"Leary a bit of a fright. There was a negative side to Cheltenham on Friday as well, Nina Carberry got a rotten fall on one of Tony Martin"s which was going well at the time. The fall itself wasn"t the problem, but when the horse was going away from the fall he walked all over her and she had hit her head off the ground initially as well. She was a little bit dizzy after it and she stood herself down, but she was back in action at Punchestown on Saturday and gave Drombeag a marvellous ride to win a three-mile chase for Enda Bolger. She is an amazing girl. Ruby Walsh got a bad fall as well and has had his spleen removed, but the operation has been a success and he is lucky, in one sense, that it wasn"t worse. Hopefully he will be back in action shortly after making a full recovery. It just demonstrates how hazardous a job being a jump jockey is. Dan Dare won at Fairyhouse last week, I was a bit disappointed with him the first time he ran, but he kept improving and he stuck at it well on Wednesday in terrible ground. I would imagine that he will show a lot of improvement on better ground. Casey Jones got it together at Punchestown on Sunday. When he ran the last day at Thurles we thought the ground was too soft for him and it was similar on Sunday, but I put on a tongue tie and that did help him a bit. He is by Oscar and some of them can have wind problems, we don"t think that Casey has a problem, but it helped him, he jumped very well and did everything right. The tongue tie can help a horse to get more air into the lungs, it works simply by keeping the airways open. It can be a fantastic help to some horses, especially if they have a tendency to hold their breath. It doesn"t inhibit the horse in any way and in fact Iktitaf used to have one fitted regularly and we always use one on Harchibald. I didn"t run Harchibald at Dundalk on Friday night last because I was concerned that the ground was very quick. A couple of runners have come back quite sore after racing there and I didn"t want to risk running him. Then, on Sunday, he didn"t run for the exact opposite reason, the ground was too soft, but he"s in great form and the current target remains, the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in a couple of weeks. He will work this week and he will work again next week and we will take it from there and hope everything is okay for a trip to England, where the going will be the determining factor. Looking ahead to this week, we have what could be described as an aptly-named horse running in a maiden hurdle at Thurles on Thursday, if he gets in. Sotally Tober is a nice horse and will benefit from good ground, so we will probably have to wait for that. Little Bug is in Dundalk again on Friday, the last day they went no gallop, she will win a race at her own level, it might be this week and it might be next week. Island Life is a likely runner at Gowran Park on Saturday, he got 12 pounds for winning the last day which is quite a hike, but I suppose he won well enough. He"s in good form and may go for that race at Gowran. Pandorama could be back at Navan on Sunday in the Monksfield Hurdle and Offaly and Mattock Ranger may go for the Troytown Chase. I can report that Aran Concerto has come out of race last week in good condition. The Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse is what we are thinking of for him, at the moment. Visit Noel Meade"s website: www.noelmeade.com