Under The Radar: Mark Fahey raises smiles during tough times for family

Clear Quartz missed the break in the rated race at last Tuesday. Stall one over the extended mile at is a good stall, out early and settle on the pace or just behind it, save ground as you turn to your right and the others jostle for position to your left. Miss the break though, and you give away the advantage of your inside draw. The advantage of a low draw can quickly become a disadvantage.  

Twelfth of the 12 runners after five strides, rider gave Clear Quartz a squeeze and he made up some of the lost ground. Mark Fahey’s horse retained his inside berth, but he had to settle for mid-division, five rivals in front of him and no obvious path into clear sailing. Around the turn and across Galway’s contours and down the hill into the dip, still sixth as they raced to the home turn, a wall of horses in front of him and subject to the ransom that fortune would demand as the race developed.

Ronan Whelan had to sit and suffer for a few strides before he could make a move.  Angled out on the crown of the home turn, he had a furlong and a half of clear sailing within which to try to catch four-timer-seeking . It didn’t look likely - the leader traded at 1.24 in-running - but Clear Quartz loves that Galway hill, he had come up it in front in two races in the past and, last Tuesday, he made it three, by a half a length from the gallant runner-up.

“He put himself into a hole,” said Fahey afterwards, “but he didn’t half drag himself out of it!  He has guts and he has determination, he loves this place and Ronan was very good on him.”

The rider related that Plan A went out the window very quickly, that he had to quickly go down the list of contingencies.

“If there was no one going on to make the running, and if we jumped quick enough,” said the trainer. “The plan was to even try to make it. Then when I saw him there in mid-division, I thought that it would be like when he ran here in the seven-furlong race, we’re going to get swallowed up now, he won’t get home. But no, he’s a great horse and it seems like he shows all his best form at Galway.”

Tracks don’t seem to matter much to Mark Fahey. This year already, he has had winners on the Flat at and and Killarney and Listowel, as well as at Galway.  And over jumps at and and Bellewstown and and .  And he operates at all ends of the spectrum. Last Friday, he won the Ulster Cesarewitch with the evergreen Happy Jacky, a 10-year-old who was racing for the 37th time and obviously still retains all his enthusiasm. Two weeks earlier at The Curragh, he unleashed the three-year-old Tina’s Indian, well backed on his racecourse debut, who ran out an impressive winner of a six-furlong maiden.

“Tina’s Indian was a big and raw horse when we got him,” says Mark now. “We backed off him in the spring, gave him time. He’s a big horse, close to 17 hands, so we never rushed him. Ronan (Whelan) was riding him in a lot of his work, and he was guiding us.”

About six weeks ago, the Calyx colt, owned by Con Harrington and James Hughes, did a strong piece of work. Ronan Whelan said that The would suit him well, and the plan to go there at the end of August was hatched.  

Expectations were high, as evidenced by an SP of 3/1, favourite, in front of horses trained by Joseph O’Brien and Dermot Weld and and Paddy Twomey. Tina’s Indian came under a ride at the two-furlong marker, and it took him a little while to pick up. But then he did, and that was impressive.

“Ronan said that he was just green,” says the trainer. “He had never been off the bridle before, and it took him a little while to figure out what he was asking him to do.  But then he picked up, that was great. It was more relief than anything else when he hit the line.  Expectations had been high. He’s exciting now. We think that he could go up in trip now to seven furlongs, or even a mile.”

The expectation was always that Mark would do something with horses. From a long line of Faheys, farriers and trainers and riders, he started off riding as an amateur. He had plenty of success as an amateur rider, he won the Goffs Land Rover Bumper on Some Article for Tom Mullins at the 2012 Punchestown Festival and, a year later to the day, he won another bumper at the Punchestown Festival on Lots Of Memories for his uncle Paul.

A fall in 2015 curtailed his riding career but, by then, he had already started to get going as a trainer, he had already trained his first winner, Point The Toes, who won a mares’ handicap hurdle at .

“My grandmother owned Point The Toes,” he says, “so it was great to have my first winner of her.  Point The Toes was a great mare for the whole family, my brother and my sister both had their first winners on her.”

Despite the success and the understandable optimism for the future, these are tough days for the whole Fahey family, as Mark’s cousin Aaron - Paul’s son - last month suffered a spinal cord injury in an accident at home that will have life-changing implications.

“We’re all thinking of Aaron,” says Mark. “It’s a long road ahead, but we’re with him, he will have all the support that he needs from his family and friends.”

Find out more about fundraising efforts to support Aaron Fahey here: