Jennie Candlish trains at Basford Grange, near Leek in Staffordshire, assisted by her partner, the former jumps jockey Alan O’Keeffe.

Jennie started out training Arabians, which she also rode, and she also became Champion Trainer in the Arabian racing world. As a result of this success, she was encouraged to take out a full trainers license and was given the opportunity to take over her current yard from former trainer Andrew Streeter, who decided to call it a day in 2002.

She was initially employed as a salaried trainer by Mr Alan Baxter, who had been involved in the yard with Andrew, and has been a huge supporter ever since. When given the opportunity to take over the yard in her own right some years later, she took the huge gamble and it has paid off, with the team enjoying numerous winners every year and managing to achieve an enviable strike rate with their runners.

Jennie's first winner was Black Bullet, who won a very decent Class 3 Handicap Chase at Newcastle back in Nov 2002, and then went on to win again next time out, in another Class 3 chase at Haydock. It has all built from there, and despite starting with a fairly small string of horses, the numbers have grown and she now trains 40-50 horses, yet still has the time to provide each one with individual attention.

Although probably seen mainly as a National Hunt trainer, Jennie has a good selection of flat horses in the yard, and achieves an excellent strike rate with them. With her jumpers, she delivers consistently good results and has enjoyed the support of loyal owners from right across the country, some of whom have been with her right from the start.

Jennie is also skilled in chiropractic techniques and acupuncture, and these skills help enormously in identifying little niggles before they become serious problems, and are especially useful for assessing any horses joining the yard who may have previously undiagnosed problems or injuries.

Alan O'Keeffe, Jennie's partner and assistant trainer, is a former jumps jockey who had over 180 winners in an 11-year career. Unfortunately a fall at Doncaster left him with four injured vertebrae, and he had to spend three months in a full brace, from neck to waist. After his recovery, he reluctantly acknowledged that the time had come to walk away from competitive riding while he was still in one piece!

Originally from Cork, he achieved success at the highest level as a jockey, having had wins at the 2005 and 2007 Cheltenham Festivals when riding Idole First for Venetia Williams, one of his biggest supporters. The partnership won the Coral Cup in 2005 and what was then known as the Racing Post Plate two years later, so he realised every jockey's dream to ride a Festival winner.

Back in 2010, Alan also had the distinction of riding the longest priced winner in Britain for 20 years, when successful on Maoi Chinn Tire, trained by Jennie, who won at Wetherby at odds of 200-1. Maoi Chinn Tire had just moved to the yard and was making his debut over hurdles, but that didn't stop him winning by nine lengths. (Maoi Chinn Tire is still in the yard at the age of 11, with 13 wins to his name, not counting his win in a charity "Legends" race at Chepstow in October 2017.)

Prior to his accident Alan had already been acting as assistant trainer for Jennie, so he has continued in that role ever since. Despite his accident preventing from race-riding, he still rides out every day, as does Jennie, which allows them to personally assess the horses and know when they are fully tuned up and race-ready.

Jennie and Alan make a strong team. Jennie is in charge of the training operation and focuses on the horses themselves, planning their individual training programmes, getting them fit, deciding with Alan when they are ready to run, and ensuring they remain healthy.

Alan does most of the race-day work, and all the long-distance travelling, which allows Jennie to spend more time with their young daughter.

Besides riding work, transporting the horses to the races, dealing with the jockeys, and liaising with owners on course, Alan has also proven himself to have a great knack for placing horses in the right races, which is a real talent, so race selection decisions are almost always down to him!