No Problem and Tramore's Great Days: The Complete Story

No Problem was a handicap chaser, not a champion, and it is worth being plain about that from the start. He is remembered for one date rather than for a body of top-class form, and the record that survives is thin. Rather than pad it out with invented colour, this section keeps to what can be verified.

The Tramore horse was an Irish-bred chestnut gelding, by Le Moss out of the mare Soft Talk, who was herself by Goldhill. He was bred by Tommy Cronin and raced in the ownership of T Cronin. He was trained by Gerard Cully. On New Year's Day 2000 he was aged nine, which places his foaling year at around 1991. He carried a handicap mark of 84 and shouldered 11 stone 1 pound to win the Mean Fiddler Handicap Chase, a 0-102 handicap for five-year-olds and older.

Beyond those identifiers, his wider career is not well documented in the surviving record, and it would be dishonest to dress it up. What can be said with confidence is that he was a genuine, well-handicapped chaser rather than a graded performer, the sort of horse who fills the bulk of an Irish jumps card and occasionally lands a well-backed touch. His starting price on the day, 5/1 favourite in a fifteen-runner field, tells you he was fancied and knew his job around a sharp track. It does not tell you he belonged in Grade 1 company, and there is no evidence that he did.

One point genuinely matters for anyone researching him. No Problem is a common name in racing, and there was a well-known British-trained chaser of the same name in the 1980s. The Tramore Millennium winner is a different horse entirely. He is uniquely identified as the chestnut gelding by Le Moss, trained by Gerard Cully and owned by T Cronin. Any horse called No Problem that does not match those connections and that pedigree is not this one, and older form lines should be read with that in mind.

So the honest verdict on the horse is straightforward. No Problem earns his page not through a career of victories but through a single, unrepeatable piece of timing. He was the right horse in the right race on the right morning, and the calendar did the rest. The story that follows is therefore less about him than about the track that gave him his moment, and the far better horses who have since made Tramore's New Year's Day their own.

No Problem ran his famous race at Tramore on 1 January 2000, and that single result is the reason this page exists. But a course-bound story about one handicap chaser would be a short one, so this section does what Tramore itself does: it widens out from the one race to the fixture and the roll of honour that make the track worth writing about.

The Mean Fiddler Handicap Chase, 1 January 2000

The race that anchors everything was the 12:45 at Tramore, the first race on the New Year's Day card and therefore the first race of the first Irish meeting of the year 2000. It was the Mean Fiddler Handicap Chase, a 0-102 handicap for horses aged five and older, run over 2 miles 6 furlongs with fifteen fences on going officially described as soft to heavy.

No Problem started the 5/1 favourite, having opened at 6/1, and won comfortably by three lengths. The winning time was 6 minutes 4.60 seconds. Fifteen ran, with one non-runner, Raheen Flower. His jockey was J R Barry, riding for trainer Gerard Cully. It was, on paper, an ordinary midwinter handicap chase. Its importance is entirely about when and where it was run, which is covered in the next section.

That is the whole of No Problem's Tramore record: one race, one win, on the morning the new year came in. There is no need to inflate it, and no honest way to make it longer than it is.

The New Year's Day Chase: Tramore's signature race

The race that gives the fixture its modern identity is not the Mean Fiddler handicap but the feature that heads the same card. Tramore's only graded race is the New Year's Day Chase, run each 1 January over 2 miles 7 furlongs for horses aged five and older. It carries different sponsor names down the years, and it was upgraded to Grade 3 in 2020 after a long spell as a Listed race.

The naming history runs from the Wilf Dooly Chase, through the Holden Plant Rentals Chase, then the Savills New Year's Day Chase, and from 2025 the O'Driscoll's Irish Whiskey New Year's Day Chase. Distances have moved about over time. Older renewals were run at 2 miles 5 furlongs and 2 miles 6 furlongs, and some previews still quote those trips, but the current official distance is 2 miles 7 furlongs. Prize money has fluctuated rather than climbed steadily, from around 26,000 euro in 2007 to roughly 19,500 euro in 2013 and about 22,125 euro in 2026.

Roll of honour: the New Year's Day Chase

The winners below are drawn from the irishracing.com "Previous Years" list, cross-checked against Racing Post, Sky Sports, RTE and Wikipedia. Starting prices come from that list; individual winning margins for several older years are not separately confirmed and are shown as n/a. The 2005 winner is confirmed but the jockey is not, and renewals before 2005 could not be confirmed for this piece.

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	SP	Trainer
2026	Heart Wood	8	Darragh O'Keeffe	2/1 jt-fav	Henry de Bromhead
2025	Embassy Gardens	9	Michael O'Sullivan	9/1	W P Mullins
2024	Jungle Boogie	n/a	Darragh O'Keeffe	n/a	Henry de Bromhead
2023	Minella Indo	10	Rachael Blackmore	7/4	Henry de Bromhead
2022	Al Boum Photo	10	Paul Townend	1/6 fav	W P Mullins
2021	Al Boum Photo	9	Paul Townend	2/9 fav	W P Mullins
2020	Al Boum Photo	8	Paul Townend	4/7 fav	W P Mullins
2019	Al Boum Photo	7	Ruby Walsh	2/1 fav	W P Mullins
2018	Bachasson	7	Paul Townend	1/1 fav	W P Mullins
2017	Champagne West	9	D J Mullins	2/1	Henry de Bromhead
2016	Abandoned	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2015	Roi Du Mee	10	K C Sexton	5/1	Gordon Elliott
2014	Marito	8	Paul Townend	13/8 jt-fav	W P Mullins
2013	Roi Du Mee	8	Davy Russell	1/1 fav	Gordon Elliott
2012	Apt Approach	9	D J Casey	5/1	W P Mullins
2011	Barker	10	D J Casey	5/1	W P Mullins
2010	The Fonze	9	J R Barry	12/1	Eoin Doyle
2009	One Cool Cookie	8	Davy Russell	7/4 fav	C F Swan
2008	Knight Legend	9	Barry Geraghty	2/1	Mrs J Harrington
2007	Cloudy Bays	10	Davy Russell	5/1	C Byrnes
2006	Kymandjen	9	J L Cullen	4/1	Paul Nolan
2005	Cloudy Bays	8	n/a	n/a	n/a

The table tells its own story. One trainer, Willie Mullins, dominates it, and one horse, Al Boum Photo, owns a four-year block in the middle of it. That is Tramore's real signature, and the great days that flow from it are the subject of the next section.

Tramore's history is a run of great days rather than one great horse, and the New Year's Day meeting supplies most of them. These are the moments that give the fixture its character, told from what the record supports.

The Millennium morning, 1 January 2000

The obvious place to start is No Problem's day. Tramore staged the first Irish meeting of the year 2000, and No Problem won the first race on the card. Secondary racing-heritage sources have since dressed that up as the first horse race of the new Millennium, run in front of a reported crowd of eleven thousand, with some Waterford heritage sources narrowing the claim to the first horseracing of the millennium in Europe.

Two honest cautions belong with the story. Strictly, the third millennium began on 1 January 2001, so this is more accurately the first race of the year 2000, even if every source attaches the millennium branding to the 2000 meeting. And the eleven thousand crowd figure rests on secondary sources rather than a primary attendance record, so it is best treated as a widely repeated claim rather than a verified one. What is not in doubt is the result itself, taken from the official record: No Problem, 5/1 favourite, won by three lengths. On a wet seaside morning that carried more meaning than the form suggested, that was enough.

Al Boum Photo's four-in-a-row, 2019 to 2022

The best-documented great days at Tramore belong to Al Boum Photo. Trained by Willie Mullins, he won the New Year's Day Chase four years running, from 2019 to 2022, and made the sharp Waterford track his traditional seasonal reappearance venue.

The 2019 win, under Ruby Walsh, mattered beyond Tramore. Two months later Al Boum Photo gave Mullins his first ever Cheltenham Gold Cup, and the New Year's Day Chase was reframed as a recognised Gold Cup springboard. He completed the sequence in 2022 under Paul Townend at odds of 1/6, a fourth straight win in front of a devoted local crowd. The Racing Post reported that track manager Owen Byrne revealed plans to name a racecourse bar after Mullins in recognition of the horse's popularity at the track. For a course that trades in loyalty and repeat visits, a dual Gold Cup winner choosing to start his season by the sea four years in a row is about as good as the great days get.

The bittersweet 2008 renewal

Not every great day is a happy one. In 2008, when the race was still the Wilf Dooly Chase, Jessica Harrington's Knight Legend won under Barry Geraghty, but the finish was overshadowed. Willie Mullins ran the odds-on Our Ben, who was still in contention when he suffered a fatal fall at the second last. Harrington acknowledged the mixed feelings afterwards, saying she did not like winning races that way. It is the kind of day that belongs in an honest history precisely because it does not fit the celebratory template.

More recent headline days

The fixture has kept producing them. In 2023 the former Gold Cup hero Minella Indo, ridden by Rachael Blackmore for Henry de Bromhead, won narrowly to a big local reception. In 2025 the race delivered a poignant afternoon when Embassy Gardens made all under the late Michael O'Sullivan to beat the hot favourite Monty's Star by five lengths, another Mullins winner of a race the yard has made its own. Between them these days show the range of what Tramore's New Year's Day can offer: household-name winners, tight finishes, and the occasional 9/1 shock that sends the holiday crowd home talking.

The August Festival's big days

The New Year's Day meeting is only half the story. Tramore's biggest and most famous fixture is the four-day August Festival, its summer showpiece where turf meets surf. The 2019 festival drew 21,268 patrons across four days, up sharply on the previous year, with the Saturday Style Evening jumping from 5,930 to 8,762. That festival also produced its own highlight when the Irish Gold Cup winner Kemboy paraded in front of the crowd. It is a different flavour of great day, holiday racing at its busiest, and it is as much a part of Tramore's character as the graded chase in the depths of winter.

The honest legacy of No Problem is a modest one, and it is better stated plainly than inflated. He does not have a stud record that shaped the breed, a string of big-race wins, or a memorial at the track. What he has is a footnote that has outlasted his form: he won the first race of the year 2000 at Tramore, and that single line has kept his name in circulation long after a nine-year-old handicap chaser would otherwise have been forgotten. That is a real legacy, just a small one, and it is entirely a product of the day and the place rather than the horse.

The larger legacy belongs to Tramore itself, and to the idea that a racecourse can be a great venue without a single champion attached to it. The track's lasting significance is the New Year's Day Chase and the sense of continuity around it. It is traditionally the first Irish meeting of the year, a fixture that pulls a big holiday crowd to a sharp seaside track, and it has become a recognised early-season trail towards the Cheltenham Gold Cup rather than a minor midwinter card. Al Boum Photo's 2019 win before landing the Gold Cup, and the 50,000 euro Cheltenham bonus later attached to the race, both point the same way: a small course punching above its grade by being a reliable starting point for the best.

If Tramore has a champion in all but name, it is Al Boum Photo, and the legacy there is well documented. Four straight New Year's Day Chases, a dual Gold Cup winner making the track his seasonal reappearance, and a plan to name a racecourse bar in the connections' honour add up to the kind of association most small courses never get. Behind him sits the training and riding record that really defines the modern venue. Willie Mullins has won the graded chase nine times, Paul Townend has ridden five winners of it, and Davy Russell won the feature three times across a decade. Those are the names bound up in Tramore's identity, and they are the honest answer to anyone looking for the course's signature.

So the closing verdict is this. No Problem is the door into Tramore's story, not the story itself. He gives the page a date, a result and a piece of folklore, and there is no need to pretend he was more than a well-handicapped chaser having the day of his life. The lasting record belongs to the fixture he opened and the horses and yards who have since made it their own. Tramore's legacy is a shared one, built from great days rather than a great horse, and it is stronger for being told straight.