Breeders' Cup Connections: Jeramie Fennell Finds Redemption on Horseback

From a young age, Jeramie Fennell was certain that he was born to be a jockey. Addicted to the thrill of riding, becoming a jockey was the only thing he really cared about, the only thing he knew for certain. So when, as he continued growing taller throughout his teenage years and maintaining weight became increasingly difficult, Fennell did what he thought he had to do in order to live out his dream. He turned to a different kind of addiction, but this time the consequences would lead him to a place so bleak that he never thought he would find a way out.

Fennell is not ashamed of his dark past. Instead, he hopes that his story can be an inspiration to others because, against all odds, he managed to come out on the other side.

Fennell grew up in Fort Pierre, South Dakota and spent his childhood following his father around the backside. Fennell's father was an exercise rider for top Quarter Horses like Special Effort, the first horse to win the Triple Crown for 2-year-old Quarter Horses.

“I was the kid that didn't want to read books, but my parents bought me horse racing magazines and I'd read those all day,” recalled Fennell. “In the mornings I'd go help feed and my dad would take me to school and then I'd come back after school and help groom and walk horses. Once I got old enough to where I could start getting on horses, my dad let me start riding. When I turned 16, I started riding races and traveling with the horse racing industry.”

Fennell found success in Quarter Horse racing early on in his career. In 2012 he rode Corona for You to a third-place finish in the G1 AQHA Distaff Challenge Championship. He traveled everywhere from Prairie Meadows in Iowa to Arapahoe in Colorado and Canterbury Park in Minnesota.

But then his life took a turn for the worst.

“I was always a bigger rider because my body frame is not built to be 118 pounds,” Fennell explained. “I started doing drugs, drinking alcohol and stuff, and it took a toll on me. I got in trouble in 2018 and didn't learn from it.”

Jeramie Fennell at Turfway Park | Katie Petrunyak

Fennell was at Remington Park, riding both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, when he realized he needed a change. Giving up his dream of being a jockey, he moved to Wyoming to gallop horses. But while he was there, he fell in with a group that only encouraged his substance abuse. Hoping to get away from that lifestyle, he moved to Montana and then to Idaho to work the starting gate.

At those small fair meets, jockeys were in high demand. Fennell did what he had to do to lose weight and start riding again, his addiction worsening by the day. Eventually he could no longer find employment as a jockey or an exercise rider. He wandered the backside every morning looking for mounts, but people would tell him to get out of their barn, that he wasn't welcome there.

Rejected and alone, Fennell wondered where he had gone so wrong.

“At the time I was thinking I didn't look any different. I didn't act any different. But everyone was telling me, 'Man, you need to change your life. You're a heck of a hand on the back of a horse, but until you figure out what you've got to do, we can't help you,'” Fennell recalled. “That dawned on me for a couple of weeks and then one day I said, 'God, just show me something, a sign, to get help.' Sure enough, a couple of days later, I got pulled over and go to jail.”

Fennell called his parents, but they wouldn't answer the phone. His family had already told him months ago that they would no longer help him.

“After that day of sitting in that little cell, I knew I had to do something for myself,” said Fennell. “I made my mind up that with the road I'm on, I'm going to be in prison or getting buried.”

Fennell had heard about a program called Stable Recovery, where men in the early stages of recovery from addiction were placed in a supportive, therapeutic community that was centered around horses. After he was released from jail, he went to his court date and then drove 26 hours to Lexington, Kentucky.

Upon his arrival, Fennell met Stable Recovery's CEO Christian Countzler, who asked him if he was serious about wanting to change his life.

“I said that I was open minded and willing to do anything, go to any length, to change my life because I just wanted to be on the backside of a racetrack on a horse,” Fennell recounted.

Fennell started Stable Recovery on December 24, 2023. This spring, as he was nearing the end of the 90-day program, Countzler introduced Fennell to trainer Will Walden. Walden, who went through his own battle with drug addiction, had launched his stable just two years prior and his team was made up of graduates of the Stable Recovery program.

As soon as Fennell graduated from Stable Recovery, he began traveling with Walden's stable.

“When I started, Will told me, 'If you come to the barn, all I ask is that you attend AA meetings,'” Fennell said. “So to this day I still attend at least three AA meetings, work my steps, call my sponsor and if I have any trouble, I go to Will about it. Will has been there and done it. I have a lot of respect for that guy and this team.”

Working with Thoroughbreds was a totally different game than the Quarter Horse circuit Fennell was so accustomed to. Walden taught Fennell a new way of exercise riding and showed him the ins and outs of the Thoroughbred industry.

“When I first got in the barn I felt very out of place,” Fennell admitted. “But I felt like it was home at the same time because I knew there was people in the barn like Will who really cared about me because he had seen something in me that I didn't see in myself. I've been on horses that ran in the All American Derby, the big Quarter Horse race, but I never pictured myself getting on the type of high-quality horse that could go to the Breeders' Cup or the Kentucky Derby.”

This fall, Fennell is living a dream that even less that a year ago, he never could have envisioned for himself. He is the regular rider of Minaret Station (Instilled Regard), the winner of the GII Bourbon Stakes who is now pointing for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1.

Jeramie Fennell and Minaret Station on their way to morning training at Turfway | Katie Petrunyak

A homebred for Larry Best's OXO Equine out of the multiple graded stakes winner Beau Recall (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), Minaret Station arrived at Walden's barn at Turfway Park early this summer. Right away, Fennell took a liking to the boisterous 2-year-old.

“He has always been a character,” Farrell explained. “Every day I'll walk by his stall and he'll try and bite me or grab my saddle or something. We have a really strong connection with each other. He's an unbelievable type of horse to gallop. He goes out there and does his thing because he just loves to train.”

In his first two starts at Ellis Park and then Horseshoe Indianapolis, Minaret Station ran third on debut and then broke his maiden by a neck on Sept. 6. Fennell was there to watch both of those races, but tuned in from Turfway for the colt's stakes debut at Keeneland because he had to help with afternoon chores back at the barn.

A 38-1 longshot, Minaret Station settled at the back of the pack in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Bourbon Stakes. He saved ground along the rail, then came flying in the final strides before the wire to get the win.

All systems are now a go for Minaret Station to take a trip to Del Mar in a few weeks for the Juvenile Turf. The colt is only the second graded stakes winner for Will Walden and he will be the young conditioner's first Breeders' Cup starter.

Fennell, who has been working with the colt at Turfway Park every morning since that breakout graded stakes victory, knows just how much talent Minaret Station has left to show.

“He's still growing,” he shared. “If you compare him to humans, he's a little kid and he's still learning, but he tries his best. He's progressing and hopefully in the Breeders' Cup, he can run like a champ. Getting on a horse that is going into a big race like that in the Breeders' Cup, it's so exciting. There are times that I'll think about it and I almost want to cry tears of joy because it is very exciting for this team to get to send a horse to a race like that.”

When Minaret Station and the Will Walden racing team get to Del Mar in a few weeks, Fennell knows there will be plenty of eyes on him during training each morning. But the ones he really cares about are those of his family, who will be tuning in to support him.

After graduating from Stable Recovery, Fennell was able to reestablish a relationship with his parents and sister. He is also getting to know his young son, who he had not been to interact with when he was in the midst of his battle with addiction.

“The last few years of my life, I didn't get to talk to my son because I was out in the chaos of my life and my son's mother said she didn't want my son seeing me that way,” said Fennell. “Now I get to go see him and it's amazing. He knows who his dad is and he knows his dad is sober. I can help him. I can help myself and others suffering from addiction. I can be a son, I can be a father and I can be a brother.”

Fennell also has big goals for his future in the racing industry. He plans to continue exercise riding and eventually become an assistant trainer so that somewhere on down the line, he might be able to launch his own training career.

“I look back to my past and think, 'Man what was I doing?'” said Fennell. “That's what I really thank Will Walden for, helping me be the best I can be in this industry. Over these past couple of months, I've been really tuning in to what he's been explaining to me about how in this industry, the sky is the limit. If you work hard, things will pay off.”