“AFTER the high of winning the southern title, when I broke my pelvis at the start of the next season, straight away I wanted to get back because I didn’t want the injury to finish me.”

That is an insight into the unfaltering determination of Ciaran Fennessy as he faced into the months of rehabilitation after breaking his pelvis in three places in a fall at Rathcannon in October 2016.

The injury would have ended the careers of many others, but Fennessy managed to overcome it and make a successful return to the saddle. However following his extended battle with the scales, which was significantly tougher following 15 months on the side lines, the Fermoy native has announced his retirement from race riding. A decision made on his terms.

National Hunt racing, like no other sport, tests its participants to the extreme. The highest of the highs, so often followed by the lowest of lows, and Fennessy’s story epitomises just that.

The Fermoy native had achieved a longheld goal of winning the southern riders title when crowned champion in June 2016. A career-best 24 winners in the region, ensured he was riding on the crest of a wave, with his career on an upwards trajectory.

SERIOUS INJURIES

That was until just four weeks into defending his title, when he suffered serious injuries at the Co Limerick track.

“I broke my pelvis in three places. I was in hospital for a few weeks and then three months in a wheelchair,” said Fennessy.

“The doctors weren’t stopping me from coming back, but they weren’t advising it after three cracks in my pelvis and I did a bone in my neck too. I have a screw and three plates in the front of me and a metal rod across the full length of my back too.

“I just didn’t want to be stopped until it was on my terms.”

That desire to be in control over his own destiny won through, as 15 months after picking up those potentially career ending injuries in Rathcannon, he was back in action between the flags when partnering Sweet As A Nut at last year’s Killeagh fixture.

The popular figure within the weigh-tent was warmly welcomed back into action for what would prove to be a final spring campaign in the saddle, where he won six races, including a double at Bartlemy in May.

Weight issues had long proven to be a thorn in Fennessy’s side, even before his Rathcannon fall. Three months confined to a wheelchair only compounded those woes, as the hurdles he faced on the comeback, not only included his physical injuries, but the fight to regain some form of control over his weight, which had risen to 13 and a half stone following his lay-off.

“I got my weight back down after it, but I could never get it properly under control after the injury. I would have always been lying at around 11 stone, 12 last year, but then having to sweat away to get down to a riding weight was very tough.

“I didn’t ride in four-year-old races last year, I was only really riding older geldings and things like that,” he admits.

WASTING

In the end, it was a number of factors, principally led by that continuing wasting, which forced his hand. “I wasn’t enjoying riding as much having to kill myself to make the weight. I would have been in the sauna Friday night, Saturday night and then again Sunday morning before riding on the Sunday, and I wasn’t as strong as I wanted to be riding because of it.

“There are six races on the card, but there are always a four-year-old maiden and a mares’ race which are lower weights, and then there is always a novice rider race, so I was really confined to riding in three races at most really.

“It wasn’t worth the punishment and knowing that I couldn’t ride four-year-olds and mares’ races, I didn’t want to be just tipping around for a few years riding only a few winners.

“If I was going to do it, I wanted to be riding at a very high standard and that was a big part of the decision.”

He calls time on a riding career with both a novice riders’ title and southern championship to his name, the latter of which he is particularly proud of.

“Winning the novice title was brilliant, but I think winning the southern title was definitely the highlight. It was always an ambition that I would have had and I always wanted to do it.

“The way it finished that season, I only barely hung on because Barry (O’Neill) and Jamie (Codd) were battling it out for the national title. I had a serious lead, but they were closing on me like mad, so the pressure was really on over the last couple of weeks.

“I had a double on the Saturday at Kinsale, so that was a huge relief and it was a big thing for me to hold on.”

A total of 181 winners in all between the flags featured success aboard future blacktype winners Shanahan’s Turn and Coillte Lass, but it is one horse that stands out.

PRESSURE

“Golantilla was a big moment. I won a four-year-old maiden on him and Sean (O’Brien) turned down a good bit of money before he went on and won a bumper at Mallow,” he recounts.

“There was a lot of pressure on after turning down the money and Mallow would have been the local track for Sean and myself which was a big thing too. Going on to win that bumper by eight or 10 lengths was a big highlight.

“That was big for me.”

A move into buying and selling young horses helped to simplify his retirement decision.

Acknowledging the support of his father Liam, Sean O’Brien, Eugene O’Sullivan, Trixie Barry, Pat Crowley, Brian O’Keeffe, Mick Winters and Paul O’Flynn, who were just some of his principal supporters, he is now breaking in a handful of flat yearlings and is working with O’Flynn, where there are 12 four-year-olds, including a number from his cousin Pat Fennessy, who has been a big supporter.

Among the dozen are two well-bred four-year-olds by Arcano and Arvico that can be expected to be out early next month, as excitement is building towards the start of the new four-year-old campaign.

It may be the end of one chapter, but with another just beginning, the Fennessy name certainly won’t be disappearing from the point-to-point fields anytime soon.