Principal Jockeys: Brian O’Connell, Shay Barry, Shane Hassett, Davy Russell, Richie Kiely
Notable Wins:
- Paddy Power Champion INH Flat Race (Dunguib 2009)
- Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Dunguib 2009)
- Surehaul Mercedes Novice Hurdle (Caim Hill 2009)
- Glen Dimplex "Future Champions" INH Flat Race (Dunguib 2008, Shirley Casper 2006)
- Irish Form Book An Uaimh Chase (Sher Beau 2008)
- Hartmann Jewellers Ballybrit Novice Chase (Vic Venturi 2006)
- Rathbarry & Glenview Studs Festival Novice Hurdle (Vic Venturi 2006, Sher Beau 2005)
- Ladbrokes.ie Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle (Vic Venturi 2005)
60 Seconds With Philip Fenton
Q: Did it take you long to adapt to the training life, or was it an easy transition to make from being a jockey?
A: The way it went was that I had bought David Wachman’s yard before I finished riding and was pre-training a few from there for six or seven months before I took out my license which helped the transition no end.
Q: You rode some top-class bumper horses during your riding career, perhaps most notably Montelado. How does Dunguib compare to him and some of the others you have ridden?
A: Solely as a bumper horse, he would rank right up there with the best of them. He has to go and prove himself over jumps now though.
Q: Being one of the lucky few to have both ridden and trained a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, which one of those wins gave you the bigger thrill?
A: Riding a winner there was a great thrill at the time, but training Dunguib to win there definitely gave me a better kick.
Q: Of the races you have not yet won, which would you most like to win?
A: In this game you have to be happy with any wins you get, but I suppose another winner at the Cheltenham Festival would be the ambition for now.
Q: What is your dark horse for the coming season?
A: Old Charm is a very nice horse that finished third on his only start in a bumper at the Punchestown Festival and he will stick to the bumper route this season.
Philip Fenton first came to international attention as an amateur jump jockey of the highest class. A four-time Champion Amateur Rider in Ireland, he tasted success at the Mecca of National Hunt racing, the Cheltenham Festival, aboard Loving Around in the 1996 National Hunt Chase. Always a formidable competitor in bumpers, it was appropriate that Fenton brought the curtain down on his race-riding career in such an event, winning on the Tony Mullins-trained L’Antartique at the 2004 Listowel Harvest Festival. At the time of his retirement, Fenton’s career tally of winners stood at 338 and in contrast with so many members of the weighing room, he retired with his body still in good order.
At the time of his retirement from the saddle, Fenton had already saddled a dozen or so runners as a trainer in the months before without success, but the very next day after he retired from riding, he got off the mark in his new profession with Slipeneer winning a bumper for him at the Listowel Harvest Festival. That win kick started what was to be a more than satisfactory first season for Fenton, with his star performer undoubtedly being the talented Sher Beau. A point-to-point winner, he won his first three starts over hurdles that season, culminating in a short-head victory over future Grade 1-winner Kill Devil Hill in the Grade 2 Rathbarry & Glenview Studs Festival Novice Hurdle at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival. That win played no small part in helping establish in the minds of the collective racing public that Fenton was now a trainer rather than a jockey.
With “second-season syndrome” being an all too common pitfall in racehorse training, Fenton could have been forgiven for taking a slight pull and looking to consolidate his lot during the 2005/6 season and not look to set overly-ambitious targets. However, Fenton blasted out of the starting blocks for his second term and posted significantly improved figures for the season, saddling a total of 11 winners, with Vic Venturi proving to be very much the pick of the bunch. The son of Old Vic won a novice hurdle at Galway, the Grade 3 Ladbrokes.ie Dorans Pride Novice Hurdle at Limerick and the Grade 2 Rathbarry & Glenview Studs Festival Novice Hurdle at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival (Fenton’s second consecutive win in the race), as well as finishing in the frame in two other Graded events.
It was Vic Venturi that got Fenton off the mark in Graded company in the 2006/7 season, winning the Grade 3 Hartmann Jewellers Ballybrit Novice Chase at Galway on his chasing debut. While that horse failed to add to his seasonal tally after that win, he was placed in Grade 1 company later in the season. Another classy performer for Fenton that season was Shirley Casper, who won the Grade 2 Glen Dimplex "Future Champions" INH Flat Race at Navan before going on to finish in the frame in the Grade 1 bumpers at the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festivals. He completed the season with a total of 13 winners and a much-increased tally of prize money that approached €250k.
2007/8 was a quieter season for Fenton in terms of big-race wins, with Sher Beau’s win in the Grade 3 Irish Form Book An Uaimh Chase at Navan being the pick of his winners during the season. Despite this, Fenton still maintained his tally of 13 winners for the season, albeit with a reduced haul of prize money.
If the lack a stable star was the main issue for Fenton in the 2007/8 season, it posed no problems whatsoever during the 2008/9 term courtesy of a horse called Dunguib. Having finished a promising second on his racecourse debut in a bumper at the Punchestown Festival in April 2008, Fenton put the son of Presenting away for the summer and brought him back for a bumper at the same track the following November, which he duly won by no less than nine lengths. A month later, the five-year-old opposed seven previous winners in the Grade 2 Glen Dimplex "Future Champions" INH Flat Race at Navan (a race Fenton had won two years previous with Shirley Casper) and couldn’t have been more impressive in winning by no less than 13 lengths under Brian O’Connell.
That win very much brought him to the attention of the racing world and led to him being installed near the head of the market for the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival the following March. Fenton targeted that race and produced his charge in tremendous shape for his big day, with bullish reports about the horses work resulting in him shortening significantly in price to send him off as the second favourite. The biggest worry that his supporters would have had during the race was that Dunguib was over-racing, such was the power with which he travelled, but once sent to the front over 2f out, the result was in no doubt. He positively powered away up the hill, coming home 10 lengths in front of his nearest pursuer and rightfully being hailed as one of the most impressive winners of that prestigious race in the last decade. The win gave Fenton his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival, which put him among an elite group of horsemen that have both ridden and trained a winner at the biggest meeting in all of jumps racing.
From there, the Grade 1 Paddy Power Champion INH Flat Race at the Punchestown Festival the following month was his obvious target and having been sent off at odds-on to double his Grade 1 tally, he duly obliged with a minimum of fuss, once again impressing with just how powerfully he travelled through the race. Following that win, the horse is generally considered one of the most promising jumping prospects this millennium and Fenton has an awful lot to look forward to in the years ahead with him.
Away from the obvious highlight of Dunguib, Fenton had another lucrative young performer in his string that season in the shape of Caim Hill. The son of Deploy put together a string of five consecutive wins, consisting of two bumpers, a maiden hurdle, a novice hurdle and a shared victory in a listed novice hurdle, before going on to finish second in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival. At the conclusion of that season, Fenton had registered career-best totals in terms of both winners and prize money, with him entering the winner’s enclosure on 16 occasions and collecting almost €300k in prize money.
While Fenton has yet to get off the mark for the 2009/10 season, the fact that his tally of winners has risen each and every season that he has trained bodes very well for his long-term prospects in the training game, and with both Dunguib and Caim Hill to look forward to in the months ahead, he is unlikely to have to wait too long to return to the big-race winner’s enclosure.
