Tragedy puts everything else into perspective

I"m still confined to the hospital bed and expect to have an operation this week. I was at home over the weekend, but I"m still not right. I had an injection last week, but it hasn"t really worked and I went back to hospital on Monday. And what bad news I heard on Monday evening, it"s awful about John Fowler. I"m absolutely stunned and shocked, I can"t find the words to adequately describe how I feel about his sudden and tragic death. I"m sure everyone who knew him would feel the same way. I can honestly say that I"m sure there is not one person amongst the racing fraternity that disliked John, he was a hugely popular man. He was involved in so many things, he was a member of the Trainers" Association committee for many years, he had only stepped down from it this year. He was a top amateur rider in his day, he was involved with horses all his life. When you think about all the things that he would have done during his life that would have involved a risk of some kind, it"s incredible to think that he was killed in the way it happened, an accident at home on the farm, it"s absolutely shocking. John was one of the top amateur jockeys of his time, in the "70s, he rode a lot of winners for many trainers. Indeed I remember him riding winners for Peggy Nolan, he used to ride Super Day for her and he had great success as a trainer as well with horses like Maid of Money and Opera Hat to name just two, there were many more, the Fowler name was synonymous with horses and with success. I hope to be up and about later this week, so I"m told anyway, but I suppose there"s no point in trying to rush back to action, I"ll probably have to take it easy for a week or two. Looking at last weekend, there was another frustrating journey for Harchibald, this time he travelled to Cheltenham for the big race last Saturday, but even before the meeting was abandoned we had decided not to run him because the ground was so bad. That"s two futile trips now, one to Newcastle a few weeks ago and one to Cheltenham. It"s very frustrating for everyone, especially the owner, and it"s not much benefit for the horse either as his schedule is completely disrupted and he"s not even getting a run. There is a chance that the race could be re-scheduled this weekend, but I doubt if we will send him over again, we may just go for the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton. What Harchibald really needs now is a run, he hasn"t had one for some time and our plans are a little bit up in the air at the moment. All part of a trainer"s routine. I was very pleased with Go Native at Punchestown last week. It was his first run since he was beaten in a novice hurdle at Galway last July by Jessie Harrington"s Desert Abbey. Go Native looked like he was going to win over the last, but he hung badly after it and it turned out that he actually injured himself in the race. He came back very lame. It took a while to get him back and we weren"t sure how he would handle the heavy ground last week, but he won well and is a very quick jumper. We may go for the Future Champions Hurdle at Leopardstown at Christmas with him now, he is entitled to take his chance in a race like that after that display at Punchestown. I was also very pleased with Kandari at Gowran on Friday, it was very heavy and he ran a cracker, he was beaten by a stayer which had the benefit of a run over hurdles under his belt from last month. Our fellow was running for the first time since we got him from France for JP McManus, he jumps very quick and will be a better prospect on better ground. He came out of the race well and you might see him at Christmas. I didn"t make it to Navan on Sunday and missed Donnas Palm winning the first race. It was a very impressive display, although it could probably be described as a moderate race. The owners were happy anyway and that"s always very important. It was helpful that Paul Carberry was able to give him an easy race and win, because he had a very hard race in the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse, that was a Grade one event and he was only a neck off the winner, Hurricane Fly. Sunday"s win at Navan will boost the horse"s confidence, it left him coming home feeling well. He really only had a canter around, he"s still only a four-year-old and will probably develop some more, he"s not over big, but he is a good looking horse and we might go for some of the big races at Christmas. I suppose a lot of people were disappointed with Pandorama at Navan, but his defeat wasn"t a total surprise to me. Willie Mullins won the race with a horse that had beaten another one of mine, Realt Dubh, at Navan last month. I was really surprised when Realt Dubh was beaten on that occasion, but Pandorama and Willie"s horse were a long way clear of the third horse on Sunday, Aura About You, which was fourth in the Royal Bond, so it wasn"t exactly a bad performance by my fellow. Aitmatov didn"t act on the ground at all, Paul Carberry said he was fine going down to that start on the sand track at Navan, but when he went out on the course he just didn"t like it and didn"t want to know. Over the first mile and a half he just didn"t want to race and Paul had more or less given up when the other runners started to come back to him. Aitmatov was able to pass some very tired horses on the run in, but he just couldn"t get to the winner. He also had a hard race in the Hatton"s Grace and would improve on better ground anyway. I will have some runners at Downpatrick on Friday, it depends on what gets in as there is a big entry, so just watch whatever runs. It will be the same at Navan on Saturday although I hope that Quempton will get into the Santa Claus maiden hurdle. He could be the one to follow, again if he gets in. We won"t have too many runners this weekend as we will be gearing everything for the post-Christmas action. Visit Noel Meade"s website: www.noelmeade.com