Dermot Meade

Dermot Meade

Article by Alan Trout

After riding one winner on the Flat, Dermot Nessan Meade had far more success under National Hunt rules, with 16 victories spread over four seasons.     

He began as an apprentice with Peter Walwyn and opened his account at Chepstow on October 21, 1985, when Bazook led at the halfway point and stayed on strongly to land the Brecon Apprentice Stakes by four lengths. 

He rode on the Flat for at least two more seasons, one of his last efforts being at Folkestone on June 1, 1987, when Basic Bliss, trained like Bazook by Peter Walwym, finished third in the Levy Board Apprentice Handicap. 

When Dermot started out over jumps he moved from one leading trainer to another, riding as a conditional for David Gandolfo, and it was on his 13-year-old veteran Netherbridge that he had his first success under National Hunt rules, coming home seven lengths clear of Richard Dunwoody’s mount Bold In Combat at the end of the Holbeach Handicap Chase at Huntingdon on September 20, 1991. 

A second win soon followed at Newton Abbot but there was then a gap of nearly 18 months before he entered the winner’s enclosure again. Three winners in four days helped his cause, and he had success on horses trained by, among others, Captain Tim Forster, Gareth Charles-Jones and Tim Thomson-Jones. He rode a career-best seven winners in the 1993/94 season.

It was Tim Thomson-Jones who supplied him with his final, and probably best, winner when The Boiler White beat two rivals to land the Mock Turtle Novices’ Chase at Haydock Park on February 24, 1995. After finishing third at Edinburgh the next month, Tony McCoy took over in the saddle, and Dermot had no further success thereafter.

Dermot Meade’s winners were, in chronological order:

1. Bazook, Chepstow, October 21, 1985

2. Netherbridge, Huntingdon, September 20, 1991

3. Noble Eyre, Newton Abbot, October 8, 1991

4. Whippers Delight, Uttoxeter, March 20, 1993

5. Simone’s Son, Uttoxeter, March 22, 1993

6. Penultimate Hand, Exeter, March 24, 1993

7. The Holy Golfer, Hereford, May 1, 1993

8. Pigeon Island, Exeter, August 25, 1993

9. Fortunes Wood, Haydock Park, November 3, 1993

10. Red Cardinal, Southwell, November 17, 1993

11. Monday Club, Windsor, November 24, 1993

12. Whippers Delight, Fontwell Park, December 30, 1993

13. Sartorius, Fontwell Park, February 7, 1994

14. Monday Club, Lingfield Park, February 10, 1994

15. Monday Club, Bangor-on-Dee, October 8, 1994

16. The Boiler White, Windsor, November 12, 1994

17. The Boiler White, Haydock Park, February 24, 1995