HorseTracker
Click here to add Jockey to HorseTracker
It was those neighbours who initially got him into pony racing and his riding career started developing from there.
Meyler began as a conditional with handicap king Tony Martin and he would have learnt plenty from that experience. He rode his first winner for Martin in a Navan bumper back in 2015. Anibale Fly was the horse and he went on to be a 167-rated chaser at his peak.
His career continued under the tutelage of Tony Martin, but Meyler was also riding out for the likes of Gordon Elliott and those contacts provided him with some excellent opportunities.
Meyler rode Lord Scoundrel to victory in the 2017 Galway Plate for Elliott.
Nowadays Meyler rides regularly for Noel Meade, but he has built up plenty of other contacts and is a respected figure in the weighing room. He has a long list of big race successes in Ireland and also has a Cheltenham Festival winner to his name.
His first winner, Anibale Fly, went on to place in two Cheltenham Gold Cups and also finished fourth in a Grand National at Aintree. Meyler was on board for his first two starts, finishing second at Fairyhouse, before getting off the mark at Navan in 2015.
The Irishman didn’t have to wait too long for his first Cheltenham Festival winner, which came on board the Elliott-trained Blow By Blow in the 2018 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.
The Galway Festival’s highlight is the Galway Plate and the valuable and prestigious race is one every jockey would love to win once. Meyler already has two victories on his CV, the first came in 2017 and the second was just last year.
Meyler has a total of 222 winners in Ireland and is well set to pass the 3,000 ride mark this season.
A total strike-rate of around seven per cent probably isn’t reflective of his ability and Fairyhouse is his most successful track, with 21 course winners so far.
His strike-rate in Britain is almost double at 13 per cent and he has ridden 10 winners from 73 runners.
The most important of those is the one Cheltenham Festival winner but it’s worth noting that he has a 50 per cent strike-rate at Doncaster, with two winners from four rides.
That aforementioned Cheltenham Festival success was his first and only winner at the meeting so far, but you would think that tally will increase sooner rather than later. Blow By Blow’s five-length success was achieved courtesy of a positive ride by Meyler.
The first of his Galway Plate successes came aboard Elliott’s Lord Scoundrel back in 2016, while Meade’s Pinkerton overcame a bad mistake at the first fence to come through and hold off the fast-approaching Duffle Coat and Zanahiyr last year.
Meyler’s only Grade 1 victory to date came in the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival in 2023.
Emmet Mullins’ Feronily overcame the Willie Mullins battalions to spring a bit of a shock.
