Hats off

It is a good job that Brian Meehan’s racing office at his historic Manton stables is huge – he needs the wall space.

Pictures of memorable winners from around the globe are a galloping wallpaper recording the achievements of a man who left County Limerick as a teenager in the 1980s with hopes and aspirations but a mountain to climb to get anywhere near to them being fulfilled.

They compete for a visitor’s attention with garlands, horse blankets and caps from forays to the Breeders’ Cup in America, including his two memorable victories in the mile-and-a-half Turf with Red Rocks and Dangerous Midge in 2006 and 2010 respectively.

The picture-hanger will need to find a few more square inches to squeeze in images of the Meehan heroes of 2024, Jayarebe and Rashabar.

Wins for Jayarebe in the Hampton Court Stakes and Rashabar in the Coventry Stakes made it a special Royal Ascot week in June for Meehan and it was no flash in the pan. Four months later, Jayarebe, who had finished runner-up to Irish Champion Stakes winner Economics in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville in August, followed up with victory in the Prix Dollar at Longchamp’s Arc meeting.

There was almost another memorable meeting double when Rashabar, who had finished second to Aidan O’Brien’s Whistlejacket when trying to give Meehan a third victory in Deauville’s Prix Morny, again narrowly missed out on a Group 1 prize when beaten a neck by O’Brien’s Camille Pissaro in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère.

The tragic epilogue to Meehan’s season came when Jayarebe collapsed and died moments after finishing unplaced in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar in November, the colt suffering a suspected heart attack. It was a bitter blow but one which should not be allowed to colour a season in which the trainer had once again showed his prowess by unearthing another pair  of equine gems.

Sadly, his achievements can seem to fly under the radar in Britain, partly because of how his stable has evolved and how he now manages his ammunition. If you added the thick end of €800,000 from prizemoney and premiums that Meehan’s runners earned in France during the summer to his British earnings, he would still be punching close to the top 20 in the trainers’ championship. That figure would have been even better if Kathmandu had not been collared in the dying strides of the French 1000 Guineas at ParisLongchamp in May and been beaten a neck by Rouhiya.

The days Meehan trained almost 200 horses at Manton are history now. He is more comfortable concentrating on quality over quantity but there is no reduction in his drive.

“I would hate anyone to think that just because we are not trying to have 150-plus horses that we lack ambition. That is not the case at all. We are comfortable with the numbers but ambitious with the horses. I would see our operation as more of a boutique-type one nowadays. We don’t want a huge amount of horses; we just want to train nice horses.

“I wouldn’t have said that training close to 200 horses brought the best out of me. I would not want to go back there. I am not saying we couldn’t do it, we could and we were successful but it wasn’t as enjoyable. Plus, what is important each year is to find good horses. It doesn’t matter how many you have, if you don’t have good horses, it is difficult.

“We have 80 boxes here but we have started the last few years with around 70 horses. The method has evolved but that is natural, you can’t stay the same. It is a cliche but the reality is you never stop learning about the horses. There is a new group every year and they are all very different. Having a smaller number means knowing them more and understanding them better.

“I like evolving hence going to Royal Ascot and winning a two-year-old race and a three-year-old middle-distance race. It gives me more satisfaction.”

Reflecting on how his philosophy has changed, Meehan adds: “When you are younger you want to train a thousand horses and be in the top five every year but we don’t care about that. It’s about winning nice races, enjoying it and keeping the business going.

“There are more and more young trainers starting every year now which is good and competitive but the people I train for have horses with me because they like having horses here. When you have that relationship, you are going to operate much better. It is great trust between trainer and client. It makes for a successful relationship.”

A key ally for Meehan is Sam Sangster, the bloodstock agent whose late father, Robert was one of the most influential breeders and owners in modern racing history through his association with Coolmore Stud and Vincent O’Brien as well as resurrecting the Manton racing estate.

Sangster bought both Jayarebe and Rashabar as yearlings at Arqana in Deauville with the latter running for the Manton Thoroughbreds syndicates he manages. The horses, all trained by Meehan, run in his late father’s instantly recognisable emerald green and blue silks.

“We do the sales together. He is my agent and it has been working very well. He wanted to go in that direction and I thought it was a good move for me to line up with him. It is a strong friendship, a great association. Both of us probably have a piece of every horse in the yard. Then you have a little skin in the game because you are not going to make anything out of prizemoney in the UK (sic) even at the higher level.

“Hence why we are doing a lot in France and buying a lot at Arqana. It makes good sense because you can take them back there for the prizemoney premiums and the prizemoney there is strong anyway.”

The 2024 returns for Meehan are even more gratifying given he had ended last season on the back foot when Isaac Shelby suffered a career-ending injury after being runner-up in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the Arc meeting.

Red Rocks, pictured here defeating Curlin in the Man O’War Stakes in 2008 with Javier Castellano riding, provided the Limerick native with his first Breeders’ Cup Turf victory at Churchill Downs two years later, when ridden by Frankie Dettori

Coventry Stakes victor, Rashabar will have Group 1 aspirations next year, with a Guineas tilt definitely in the pipeline

The 2023 French 2000 Guineas runner-up, who had been bought by the increasingly influential Qatar operation, Wathnan Racing, was supposed to be the Meehan flagbearer as he again set his sights on prizes around the world. It is a modus operandi which again probably contributes to Meehan being less heralded at home than his achievements deserve.

The first of his 15 Group/Grade 1 wins was with the Kieren Fallon-ridden Tomba in the 1998 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp and eight of that tally have been overseas.

As well as his two Breeders’ Cup Turf wins, Meehan won the 2003 Gazelle Stakes on Belmont Park’s dirt track with Pat Day-ridden Buy The Sport, the 2006 Dubai Duty Free with the Jamie Spencer-ridden David Junior and the 2008 Man O’War Stakes at Belmont with Red Rocks in the hands of Javier Castellano. Meehan also became the first European trainer to win a race in Qatar when the Spencer-ridden Perkunas landed the 2015 Al Rayyan Stakes.

“It was Dermot Weld who was probably the first one to try to harvest the races abroad, especially America, winning the Belmont Stake as well as the Melbourne Cup. I always admired that and it appealed to me and my owners.”

It was Frankie Dettori who rode Meehan’s two Breeders’ Cup winners, memorably using exaggerated hold-up tactics on Red Rocks, but beyond that, the jockeys to ride for him are a who’s who of the weigh room, some of the best the sport has ever seen, including Cash Asmussen, Hugh Bowman, Willie Carson, Ray Cochrane, Kevin Darley, George Duffield, Martin Dwyer, Jimmy Fortune, Richard Hughes, Kerrin McEvoy, Ryan Moore, Johnny Murtagh, Gerald Mosse, Pat Smullen, Gary Stevens, Walter Swinburn and Johnny Velasquez.

Mick Kinane, who Meehan still works closely with in the training of a crop of two-year-olds annually which are then shipped to Hong Kong for their racing careers, partnered Meehan’s first big winner, the 1995 Listed National Stakes at Sandown on Amaretto Bay. Pat Eddery won 98 races for him and he even got to use the great Lester Piggott.

It is a list which adds context and significance to the praise Meehan showers on his current No 1 choice, Sean Levey (featured elsewhere in this publication).

“You have to go for the best if you can. Although Lester didn’t ride a winner for me, he was really helpful with his feedback. Sean is our go-to man now and rides with incredible confidence and understanding of what he intends to do in each race.

“I think a lot of Sean as a jockey and a guy. It is a good relationship and you have to have that with your jockey. You have to find ways of making them confident and not put them under too much pressure.”

It was 2006 when, having been approached by Ben and Guy Sangster, Meehan succeeded John Gosden at Manton, the secluded, private estate just outside Marlborough in Wiltshire. His predecessors included Peter Chapple-Hyam, Michael Dickinson, Barry Hills and, further back, Alec Taylor, the 12-time champion trainer known as the Wizard of Manton with his 21 Classic successes, and George Todd, who trained Sodium to win the 1966 Irish Derby and English St Leger.

Meehan has since bought his corner of Manton with his stable having rights to the gallops which are maintained by estate owner Martyn Meade. It has been quite a journey for the son of an orthopedic surgeon, whose family were interested in horse racing but had no connection to it. “Growing up in Ireland it was very hard to avoid it. There were ponies, hunting and summer jobs riding out for trainers. Racing was what I always wanted to do. I finished school and went to the Irish National Stud, which was great grounding for two years, and then Richard Hannon’s and you couldn’t get a better education than there.

“I had written to him, Robert Armstrong and Dick Hern and nobody replied. It was pre-mobile phones so I came home for the weekend from the stud and my father said to call them. The first one I called was Hannon and I said, ‘It is Brian Meehan from the Irish National Stud, can I speak to Mr Hannon?’ I think he thought I was interested in looking at Don’t Forget Me, who had just won the (1987) 2000 Guineas, for the stud. He wouldn’t have taken the call otherwise! I came over and stayed nearly six years and my first winner – Connect, ridden by Brian Rouse at Brighton in May 1993 - was owned by his wife Jo.”

But going solo was far from smooth sailing at the start as Meehan, whose aspiring trainer son Frank will start work for Francis Graffard in France in 2025 after a spell in the US with Brendan Walsh, recalls.

“In that first year training at Folly House in Lambourn we got to six winners. I couldn’t believe it but we were struggling and at one stage were kept going when my holiday pay and pool money from Hannon’s turned up.

“I remember going to the bank manager and asking for an overdraft and he turned me down. But Brendan Powell introduced me to a lovely man called Mick Donovan, who ran the Allied Irish Bank in Birmingham. He said, ‘What do you need? I will send you a cheque book and open an account and you get on with it. Concentrate on your horses and leave the rest to me.’ There is always a way – you have to try to work it out.”

By the time he got the invitation to Manton, Meehan had bought Newlands Stables in Lambourn and expanded it from 50 to 90 boxes. There was also an offer to return home. “I was offered the opportunity once to train for a large owner in Ireland but I declined it because things were getting going here.”

The momentum had developed thanks to horses like seven-furlong specialist Tumbledown Ridge, a three-time winner of the Ballycorus Stakes at Leopardstown, 2000 Prix Morny winner Bad As I Wanna Be, 2005 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Donna Blini and David Junior, arguably his best ever horse with domestic wins in the 2005 Champion Stakes and 2006 Eclipse Stakes.

But for fine margins, it could have been even better. The talented Delegator had the misfortune to run into Sea The Stars in the 2009 2000 Guineas while there might have been a third Breeders’ Cup win if Shumoos, ridden by the late Garrett Gomez, had not missed the break when runner-up in 2011 Juvenile Sprint.

While the Meehan conveyor belt may have slowed a little, the 2024 flat season has shown it continues to deliver quality racehorses. The cruel blow of losing Jayarebe has robbed him of a colt who would have had some of the world’s biggest middle-distance prizes on his agenda in 2025 but as he surveys the pictures on his office wall, he has realistic Classic aspirations for Rashabar. After the Group 1 near-misses, the goal will be a first top-level victory since Most Improved won the 2012 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The contrasting emotions Meehan must have faced during the 2024 campaign make it all the more poignant when he says: “I am an optimist by nature. It is all very well to look at the wall and thinking of those winners, but we have to think about what is to come.” And making more space on that wall.