Name: James Fennell
Age: 19
From: Dungarvan, Waterford
First Winner: Intersky Falcon
How did you get involved in racing?
I started off with pony club and did everything all the way up like show jumping, fun rides, hunting, and I won an eventing championships with the pony club too.
I first started off with Colin Motherway when I was in school and worked for him for three years. Colin and his family were very good to me and helped me to get going.
Colin was a very successful rider himself and he was very good to give me advice, and I learned lots from him.
You got good experience on a horse of Colin’s called Conor’s Gift?
I had 10 or 11 spins on her to start me off and we finished placed a couple of times. She was a good, consistent horse to start with. My father John owned her and he would have rode in a few point-to-points himself too.
How did you end up with Declan Queally?
Last year, I started going into Declan’s on a Saturday. I am from only 15 minutes down the road and I knew a few of the lads that were already in the yard. I have finished school now after the Leaving Cert during the summer, and I am with Declan now seven days a week.
After I did my Leaving Cert, Declan asked if I wanted to hold off on college for a year and have a go at this full time. I have had a big interest in horse racing for a long time, so I said that I would give it a go and see how I would get on.
Intersky Sunset was your first winner and she was quite a new horse to the yard?
She only joined the yard at the end of June, start of July time and had run twice on the track in beginners’ chases.
I had ridden her in work at home and schooled her a few times, so I knew she would have a good chance going into the race, but I thought that David Christie’s horse [Global Assembly] might take a bit of beating.
I am very grateful to Declan for giving me the chance. It is a great yard to be in. He had a lot of success last year, he had plenty of winners, so it is a great place to be in at the moment.
Now that you have ticked off your first winner, do you have any other targets for the season ahead?
The main aim is to try and get my name out there as much as possible, and get as many winners as I can.
Are there any other horses in Declan’s yard that readers should look out for over the next few weeks?
There are nice few horses in this season. There is a horse called Alvarez Eclipse who won at Grennan last year. He is a good horse and should be running soon enough.
Beau’s Candle who finished second in Castletown-Geoghegan, he will definitely be thereabouts again the next day too.
Finally, outside of point-to-pointing do you have any other interests?
I play a bit of hurling for my local club the Brickey Rangers, and we have a show jumper at home.
