Jeramie Fennell finds redemption on horseback

From an early age, Jeramie Fennell was sure 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 sure. So, as she continued to grow throughout her teenage years and keeping the weight off became increasingly difficult, Fennell did what she felt she had to do to live her dream. He moved on 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 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 backcountry. Fennell’s father was an exercise rider for top Quarter Horses such as Special Effort, the first horse to win the Triple Crown for 2-year-old Quarter Horses.

“I was the kid who didn’t want to read books, but my parents would buy me horse racing magazines and I would read them all day,” Fennell recalled. “In the mornings I would go help feed and my father would take me to school and then I would come back after school and help prepare and walk horses. When I was old enough to start riding horses, my father let me start riding. When I turned 16, I started riding and traveling with the horse racing industry.”

Fennell found success in Quarter Horse racing early 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 is not built to carry 118 pounds,” Fennell explained. “I started using drugs, drinking alcohol and things like that, and it took its toll on me. I had problems in 2018 and I didn’t learn from them.”

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 race horses. But while there, he became involved with a group that only encouraged his substance abuse. Hoping to get away from that lifestyle, he moved to Montana and then Idaho to work his way out.

At those small fair meetings, jockeys were in great demand. Fennell did what he had to do to lose weight and start riding again, his addiction getting worse every day. Eventually, he could no longer find work as a jockey or exercise rider. He wandered around the back every morning looking for mounts, but people told him he was coming out of his barn, that he wasn’t welcome there.

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

“At that time I thought I didn’t look different. I didn’t act any differently. But everyone was telling me, ‘Man, you have to change your life. You’re a hand on a horse’s back, but until you figure out what you need to do, we can’t help you,” Fennell recalled. “That stuck with 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 was arrested and went to jail.”

Fennell called his parents, but they didn’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,” Fennell said. “I thought with the way I’m on, I’m either going to jail or I’m going to be buried.”

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

Upon his arrival, Fennell met the CEO of Stable Recovery, Christian Countzler, who asked if he was serious about changing his life.

“I said I was open-minded and willing to do anything, go all the way, to change my life because I just wanted to be at the back of a racetrack with a horse,” Fennell explained.

Fennell started Stable Recovery on December 24, 2023. This spring, as he neared 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 started his stable just two years earlier 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 first started, Will said to me, ‘If you come to the barn, all I ask is that you attend AA meetings,'” Fennell said. “So today I still attend at least three AA meetings AA, I work my steps, call my sponsor, and if I have a problem, I go to Will about it. Will has been there and done that. I have a lot of respect for this guy and this team.”

Working with thoroughbreds was a totally different game than what Fennell was so used to on the Quarter Horse circuit. Walden taught Fennell a new way of riding and showed him the ins and outs of the thoroughbred industry.

“When I first walked into the barn I felt very out of place,” Fennell admitted. “But I felt like I was home at the same time because I knew there were people in the barn like Will who really cared about me because he saw something in me that I didn’t see in me. I’ve been on horses that ran in the All American Derby, the big Quarter Horse race, but I never imagined myself riding the kind 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 than a year ago, he could never have imagined for himself. He is the regular rider for Minaret Station (Instilled Regard), the GII Bourbon Stakes winner who now targets the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar on November 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 multiple graded stakes winner Beau Recall (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}), Minaret Station arrived at Walden Barn at Turfway Park earlier this summer. Fennell immediately took a liking to the boisterous 2-year-old.

“He’s always been a character,” Farrell explained. “Every day I’ll go by his stall and he’ll try to bite me or grab my chair or something. We have a very strong connection between us. He is an amazing type of horse to gallop. He goes out and does his thing because he loves to coach.”

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

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

It’s all systems go for the Minaret station to make a trip to Del Mar in a few weeks for the youth turf. The colt is just Will Walden’s second stakes winner and will be the young conditioner’s first Breeders’ Cup holder.

Fennell, who has been working the colt at Turfway Park every morning since that ladder win, knows how much talent Minaret Station has left.

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

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

After graduating from Stable Recovery, Fennell was able to re-establish a relationship with her parents and sister. He’s also getting to know his young son, who he hadn’t been around to interact with when he was in the midst of his battle with addiction.

“The last few years of my life, I couldn’t talk to my son because I was out of the chaos of my life and my son’s mother said she didn’t want my son to see me like that,” Fennell said. “Now I can go see him and it’s amazing. He knows who his father is and he knows his father is sober. I can help him. I can help myself and others who suffer 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 working out and eventually become an assistant coach, so that at some point down the line, he can start his own coaching career.

“I look back on my past and think, ‘Man, what was I doing?'” Fennell said. “That’s what I really thank Will Walden for, helping me be the best I can be in this industry. Over the past few months, I’ve been paying close attention to what he’s been telling me about how in this industry, the sky’s the limit. If you work hard, things will pay off.”