What is Noel Meade at running Pandorama?

owners decision, he wanted him running

owner is in NAMA, throwing caution to the wind imo...pr1ck

I suppouse time will tell if it has left its mark on him but to my eyes there was no upside there. Gold cup on fast ground is no place for a soft ground stayer. Shades of Dorans Pride and Hourigan imo. That was shocking stuff

Was he 5th in the end...great run anyway, appears to be a fully justified decision

ah only 7th i see...but ran well enough, better than the supposed ground-loving kempes anyway

The owner is a grade A w@nker.

Jeez John if 7th finishing unconscious is the best they had in mind for Pandorama then I am stunned. Meade has a bad history of bottoming horses at that track and I fear he has done it again here.
The brave thing to do would have been to withdraw. There will be plenty of rain again in the future and to my eyes it made no sense to run. Not aftertiming either I put that post up well before the race and plenty of others said it too.Inexcusable

meade did say that he was worried bout the ground and added that the owner wanted to run,he who pays the bills.owner wanted his day in the sun.

well **** the owner anyway, I had a lucky 63 with Bostons Angel, Hurricane Fly and Sizing Europe all winners. If Pandorama hadn't run I'd have got double the payout

Unlucky Den.

I can understand the temptation for an owner to chance it must be huge. But in this case he really should have done the right thing by the horse.

lustrumm, no point having a pop at meade if owner insisted on running, plus carberry isnt jockey to punish a horse unduly if its chance is gone as at newbury last year, official going was good & pandorama is a horse with very little mileage on the clock, didnt hear any post-race update but "unconscious" is just a tad way OTT i'd say

yea crazy decision from noel meade and the owner. greedy shall we say. type of horse that could perform at punchestown, gold cup maybe. meade is having a rubbish season wants again.

I fairness Weld was adamant his filly needed significant cut, but she ran a blinder on unsuitable ground.

Sympathise with you Den,unlucky.

Complete overreaction.
The horse was basically having a its 2nd run of the season. He has to run somewhere!!! There`s no guarantee Punchestown will be any softer.
He was only beaten 4 lengths by a course specialist and less than twelve by a dual GC winner who traded at 1/2 in running. 
Beef or Salmon got over his fruitless trips to C`ham and had no problem mopping up more Gr 1s back here.
Unlucky Den, but you really can`t complain about the horse taking his chance. They wanted to see if he was as good as they hoped. A sporting decision and they can`t be blamed for trying.

was badly hampered during the race.
he jumped well too , but i would be sure he didnt come home unconcious.

I guess from my point of view unlike so many of Meade's hype horses I actually thought this time he was for real and this horse would have been treated with kid gloves right up until the day he proved them right or wrong. For sure it is hard to walk away on the day whe nthe blood is up.
However none the less they should not have run. The last thing I saw on the screen was Carberry flaking the horse up the hill with the race over.

My own view FWIW is that Meade is starting to feel the pressure from Gordon Elliot who will end up taking a lot of his owners and he contributed to what was a bad decision.
Perhaps I am wrong but that is my view. Who knows what the weather will be like next month but there is always next year. The truly great trainers always know there is antoher day

Noel said the owner wanted to run him so as he pays the bills for Pandorama he did. In that position i don't know what i would of done to be honest.

I can see why the owner wanted to take his chance. If we look at the opposition going into the race you have Long Run (doubt about Cheltenham form), Kauto Star (in decline?), Denman (in decline?), Imperial Commander (poor prep, in decline?), Modnight Chase (just a handicapper), What A Friend (bit of a monkey), Tidal Bay (total screw), Kempes (how good?), China Rock (how good?) and so on, he probably thought he had a massive chance if he acted as good on the ground. Obviously now we know he had SFA chance of beating Long Run yesterday.

In future i would guess he will only be run when there is some cut in the ground but while i was surprised they took their chance i feel the owner had every right to have a go

Giant strides only one to make a sensible comment, do people stop to think before they post?

The horse might have preferred softer going but it wasn't as if the ground was so hard the whole Gold Cup field came back on crutches.
So Pandorama got beaten? wow!!!, will it make one iota of a difference to his lucrative stud career?, oops sorry! he has no stud career, the owner was dead right national hunt horses don't have reputations to uphold in the real sense of the word unlike top class flat racers, but you'd be forgiven for thinking otherwise such is the carry on of some trainers and owners, after christmas Ireland nearly runs out of cotton wool such is the demand for the product from within horse racing circles, and maybe just maybe if he ran on soft ground he might well have got stuffed anyway, simply not good enough?.
Desert Orchid won 34 of his 70 races did those 36 defeats make one bit of a difference? of course not, but back then national hunt horses were national hunt horses not molly coddled porcelain dolls.

That was as fast as Cheltenham could be though, they did do the course record set when Gloria Victus was put down in that Brutal race in 2000.

Great that the horse is in one piece and lets hope there is no ill effects.

By Brutal race i mean a relentless gallop all the way with no quarter Given

The horse should not have run on the basis they withdrew Fully Funded because of the going.
Why withdraw an average at best novice hurdler and not the best horse in the yard.

The horse was not happy on that ground, he looked sticky at every fence to me, not jumping bad by any means but didn't look to be letting himself down on that gnd.

Hope the horse is okay.

Fully Funded wasn't withdrawn on account of the ground. He was lame.

All fair points and of course the main one if the owner insisted on running so be it. But don't anyone tell me that running Pandorama and having on his head the whole way round yesterday was good for the horse (or at best did him no harm)
This is a horse that could win the next 3 Irish Gold cups.
I feel what was missing was a cold hard analysis. The brave thing to do would have been to withdraw and wait for Punchestown or rough off for the season. Horse won a grade 1 already this year and has already proven his worth.
Horse has never even run on good ground before yesterday since a bumper and the one other time they took a chance in the Hennessy at Newbury we all saw what happened.
I am all for having a go but that was foolish yesterday and anyone that says anything else is not looking at the big picture. This could be a great soft ground horse if he is looked after. cheltenham is no place to take a chance history has taught us all that.

Surprised nobody posted this yet.

Pandorama season over after he returns 'sore'

BY BRIAN FLEMING 1:43PM 21 MAR 2011

PANDORAMA, who finished seventh behind Long Run in the Totesport Gold Cup, will not run again this season after returning home sore from the festival.
Trainer Noel Meade had expressed his concern about the drying ground at Cheltenham before the decision was made to allow the Lexus Chase winner take his chance.

Meade said on Monday: “Unfortunately Pandorama came home sore and he definitely won’t run again this season.”

Stablemate Realt Dubh could reappear before the end of the season with Meade eyeing a shot at the Powers Gold Cup at Fairyhouse next month, a race Meade has won twice with Thari and Aran Concerto.

A dual Grade 1 winner this season, Realt Dubh performed with credit when third behind Captain Chris in the Irish Independent Arkle Chase for owner Derek Sharkey.


“He seems well in himself since Cheltenham and the plan at the moment is to probably run him in the Powers Gold Cup next month,” Meade said.

Lustrumm.....spot on latest newz....Pandorama very sore and out for some time...bad news for the Meade stable

Thats what I posted.

He`s sore. He`ll get over it!

I Place Layed Pandorama and was very surprised Carberry persisted
He got hampered and was struggling badly going down the back straight.

Thought he was going to be eased down at the top of the hill. Chance gone.
Like McCoy and a couple of others did.

That (unnecessary) last mile must have hurt

I doubt Paul continued on with him if he thought it was pointless, sure he pulled him up after 4 fences in the Hennessy when he realised all chance had gone, im absolutely positive he would of pulled up if he felt the horse was feeling anything, he is a brilliant horseman

This is a stable in decline.The rot really set in when Gillian OBrien left taking some owners with her,she is now with Jessica Harrington.The Sharkeys have long been with Noel Meade yet their Cheltenham winner Noble Prince trained by Paul Nolan.Meade had back surgery this year so he himself not fully fit sadly a stable of the past.

stable of the past surely a little harsh wildman...maybe it hasent got the firepower of a few years ago but to say the stable is in rapid decline is imo a little strong ....mullins has moved on to such an extent that any stable apart from nicholls or henderson would find it hard to stay in touch ..never knew gillian had moved to harrington were noel and her not an item or have i got that wrong ....

Only has 50 horses these times, I'd say he'd have had well over 100 18 months ago, so a case can be made to call it rapid decline. Horse of theirs I like is Thegreatjohnbrown, some of his form looks good now in light of whats happened in the RSA.

A few points to clarify.
Noel Meade did have problems with his back but seems fine this year.
I dont think Gillian O Brien is involved in the Jessica Harrington yard except perhaps in the treatment of back problems.
Michelson owned by Gillians parents is still in Meade yard & had not run at time Gillian left.
Dont think Gillian took any owners - she had nowhere to take them.
Des Sharkey had horses with Meade for years & doesnt anymore - however his son owns Realt Dubh so clearly no major disagreement.

All that said he has nowhere near the firepower of old - has been hit been hit by recession, owners going elsewhere & builders who are no longer in the game.
Still is a very good trainer.

My fundamental point is that the Meade of old would have not run the horse and I'd say regrets not standing his ground now.
I like Meade and don't accept he is a trainer in decline but as other have said the ability of Mullins to find nearly every good young horse in the Country and the ability od Elliot to court all the young owners is squeezing him out of the game.

For me the best line of Cheltenham last week was when Gordon Elliot was interviewed after his second winner on the Wednesday when he said "jeez it is going to be a rough one tonight"
Owners love that action and the oldies can't go the gallp anymore

Two further points.

1) Noel was on The Business Programme with George Lee last Saturday week. He said his string had gone down from 125-140ish to 65. He said 50% of his owners had been builders. Also most of the syndicates have disappeared.

2) How long will it be before Paul Carberry becomes first choice jockey to Elliot rather than Meade.

Soapp...I think his long time head lad has gone out on his own,seems like they are all deserting a sinking ship.

Andy Lynch is gone nearly two years I reckon.

Kavanagh was the man i had in mind.

Peter Kavanagh is still there. Peter has a licence & is training a few moderate horses but he still works with Meade.

Thanks Major Rumpus but it does seem a strange arrangement.