{"id":342070,"date":"2025-08-13T20:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342070\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T20:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T20:40:16","slug":"noel-meade-and-helvic-dream-connections-lose-galway-hurdle-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/342070\/","title":{"rendered":"Noel Meade and Helvic Dream connections lose Galway Hurdle appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ndaawi, left, with Jack Kennedy up, crosses the line in the Guinness Galway Hurdle beside Helvic Dream and Donagh Meyler with Ndaawi getting the verdict following a stewards' enquiry. Photo by Seb Daly\/Sportsfile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2ce9221b-d281-4f67-89a1-ebf6dc5c3e64.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Ndaawi, left, with Jack Kennedy up, crosses the line in the Guinness Galway Hurdle beside Helvic Dream and Donagh Meyler with Ndaawi getting the verdict following a stewards&#8217; enquiry. Photo by Seb Daly\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Connections of Helvic Dream have lost their appeal against the decision of the stewards to demote their horse to second in the Galway Hurdle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Helvic Dream and Donagh Meyler won by a head but the stewards deemed there was enough interference caused to Jack Kennedy and Ndaawi to change the finishing order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Noel Meade&#8217;s appeal was considered at a Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board hearing on Wednesday, with Mrs Justice Siobhan Keegan outlining the decision on behalf of the Appeals Body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">She said: &#8220;The ultimate decision that we have to reach is whether the stewards erred in their decision on the day and whether we should uphold the decision or reach a different view on this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;Having viewed all the recordings of the race and considered all of the evidence we have to come to our decision, mindful that these determinations are on the balance of probabilities. We also want to say that we can well see why an appeal has been brought in this case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;In coming to our conclusion&#8230; we cannot be satisfied that the stewards erred in their decision to reverse the placings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">&#8220;In summary that is because interference has occurred, and it was caused by Mr Meyler. Whilst Mr Kennedy&#8217;s horse may not have obviously lost its own momentum, he was clearly significantly pressed for space so near the rail and he was not able to ride his strongest race. We must therefore dismiss the appeal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Meade&#8217;s deposit was returned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ndaawi, left, with Jack Kennedy up, crosses the line in the Guinness Galway Hurdle beside Helvic Dream and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-342070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115023395299763930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}