Richard Fahey has trained over 3500 winners, including the likes of group one winners Perfect Power, Sands of Mali, Ribchester, Wootton Bassett and Mayson, and he is now embarking on a new challenge, the Jack’s 2 Jack’s cycle ride to raise money for the Injured Jockeys Fund.
“I’m not a cyclist”, Richard confessed, “I was trying to lose a bit of weight, I was in the gym and Jo mentioned there was a cycle ride, so I bought a bicycle and said I’d do it”.
The challenge is to cycle 48.5miles from Jack Berry’s house to Jack Berry House, but the distance is not necessarily the problem, “Jack lives at the bottom and we have to cycle to the top, if that makes sense. It’s the climbing that’s probably more that I’m fearing, but I’m hoping I’ve prepared well enough.
“I just always think the jockeys need looking after, I suppose. I am an ex-jockey as well. They’re only three seconds away from disaster any time they get on a horse, so if we can help them, great. Being a little bit selfish, it’s given me a challenge to keep my fitness levels up. As you get older, you need targets, you know”.
Like many people who grew up in Ireland, Richard rode ponies as a child and that provided his pathway into racing, “We’re all involved in horses, Irish people. If you live in the country, you have a horse. You can’t walk past too many fields without seeing a horse. It’s natural progression in Ireland for people to be involved, especially country people. I used to do showjumping and different things. I was small when I was in school and it just seemed the route to go. I think I got talked into it – ‘You’re small, you should be a jockey’.
“I wouldn’t say I was a very good rider, well, I wasn’t”, Richard admitted, “I was champion Ireland apprentice and joint champion conditional, but, when I got up with the big boys, I wasn’t able, so I retired quite early. I was twenty-six. I think I retired before I got retired, if that makes sense”.
Unlike some jockeys-turned-trainers, it was not a natural progression for Richard to move into the training ranks: “I never wanted to train. I started trading in horses, stores and breeze-up horses. I would’ve been one of the first people there when breeze-ups started. I used to get a few breeze horses, and I had a couple of stores. I was buying store foals and selling them as three-year-olds, and making a good living out of it, but a guy that I used to ride for, Tom Barr, had a few horses and I was running a livery yard as well and I prepared a few for him, pretraining them, and they did quite well. He sort of talked me into training, so it was him and Peter Easterby who convinced me to go down that route and my business just took off and I’m afraid I couldn’t train and trade. I had to make a decision which route to go because it’s hard to sell untried stock as a trainer, so I concentrated on the training”.
And with great success, only dropping below one hundred winners in a year once since 2008 and even achieving 235 winners in a season. His yard’s pioneer in recent years has been Spirit Dancer, the now eight-year-old, who rose through the ranks to land the Bahrain International Trophy, worth £500,000 to the winner, in November 2023; the Neom Turf Cup with a just short of £1million winner’s purse in February 2024, and regained the Bahrain International Trophy in November 2024, beating recent Lockinge winner Lead Artist.
“[Spirit Dancer] has been a life-saver a bit, that’s probably the wrong word, but he’s been a breath of fresh air for us because it’s hard to get the brave ones, I’d say percentage-wise it’s very small for top quality horses and to see him progress through the ranks and winning in the Middle East, where he trains, he’s over there now, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the whole journey. It was great to be involved in it”.
Richard always had complete faith in the horse, “He was always a decent horse, and I admire the owners Peter Done, Ged Mason and Sir Alex [Ferguson], who were extremely patient with the horse. I kept telling them he’s a decent horse, but it just took time. As a young horse, his knees weren’t great and there were just a few changes there and you have to be very patient and mind them and keep them off the very fast ground early on, but now he’s matured. Through their patience, to be fair, he’s come good, so you’d have to give the owners a lot of credit in that. Probably helps that they’re more National Hunt men so they’re used to giving time to National hunt horses so it’s probably through that, but it’s through their patience they have been rewarded”.
The pursuit of finding the next big group one star for Richard is never ending. The day after we spoke, he, along with Aidan O’Ryan, part of his buying team, purchased a colt from the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale, by Kodi Bear, who beat Richard’s old charge Gabrial, a bit of a legend in his own right, in the Celebration Mile back in 2015.
To find horses of Kodi Bear or Gabrial’s calibre is not easy, and it’s getting more difficult, “The years as they’ve gone on, it’s getting tougher, especially the breeze-ups,” Richard explained, “It’s very transparent which horses we want, and the breeze-up lads do an unbelievable job in getting them to breeze so well. The times generally are the better horses, but there are some in there, they don’t breeze well for some reason or another. It’s a little bit like it’s the Derby there for the lads on the day of the breeze and sometimes a horse just doesn’t perform because he’s not right, he’s just not feeling well. There are hidden ones there, but it’s very difficult to find them”.
In response to the question of what have his career highlights been, Richard initially answered simply, “Surviving!”, but elaborated that, “We’ve been lucky over the years, we’ve had some very good horses, I think we’ve trained over three and a half thousand winners, so we’ve had lots of highlights. I couldn’t say that there was one that really sticks out, but I suppose we’ve had Ribchesters, Wotton Bassetts, Platinum Queen, plenty of group one horses. Any group one winner is a highlight!”
It is clear that Richard is immensely appreciative of the horse racing industry – in his words, “It’s the greatest industry in the world and it’s given me a great deal, and I’ve enjoyed every day of it” – which is likely why he is giving back through the Jack’s 2 Jack’s cycle ride. And, if his relentless pursuit of that next group one star is anything to go by, he will have plenty of determination to negotiate those hills, all in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund.