Born in Limerick on August 19, 1972, Fergal O’Brien served a lengthy apprenticeship with Tim Forster and Nigel Twiston-Davies, and as a successful point-to-point trainer in his own right, before taking out a full training licence in 2011. He saddled his first winner under National Hunt Rules, Horsham Lad, ridden by Paddy Brennan, in a handicap chase at Carlisle on October 20, 2011 and, since 2019, has been based at Ravenswell Farm in the Cotswold village of Withington, near Cheltenham.
O’Brien trained the first Grade 1 winner of his career, Poetic Rhythm, again ridden by Brennan, in the Challow Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury in 2017. Since moving back to Gloucestershire, he has trained three more, notably saddling Crambo to back-to-back victories in the Long Walk Hurdle an Ascot in 2023 and 2024, on both occasions in the hands of his subsequent stable jockey, Jonathan Burke and, more recently, Sixmilebridge, ridden by Kielan Woods, in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown in 2026.
O’Brien holds a dual-purpose licence, but his emphasis is predominantly on National Hunt racing. In that sphere, he reached the landmark of 100 winners in a season for the first time in 2020/21 and enjoyed his most successful campaign so far in 2021/22, when he saddled 141 winners from 748 runners, at a strike rate of 19%, and amassed £1.6 million in prize money.
Interestingly, from a punting perspective, O’Brien has achieved his highest overall strike rates (36% and 35%, respectively, at the time of writing) at Ayr and Kelso, so his forays north of the border are clearly worth noting. Particularly notable are his 4-7 (57%) record with ‘bumper’ horses at Kelso and his 10-18 (56%) record with hurdlers at Ayr, the latter yielding a healthy level stakes profit of 48.93 points, again at the time of writing.
