Jennie Candlish is a dual-purpose trainer based at Basford Grange Racing Stables in Basford, near Leek, Staffordshire, where she is assisted by her partner, former National Hunt jockey Alan O’Keefe. Candlish saddled her first ever winner as a trainer, Black Bullet, ridden by Lee Vickers, in a handicap chase at Newcastle on November 15, 2002. Indeed, following his death on March 31, 2025, aged 32, she wrote of the New Zealand-bred gelding, “Horses change lives, and this horse certainly changed mine.”
On the Flat, Candlish saddled her first winner, Kenny The Truth, ridden by Ian Mongan, in a lowly banded stakes race at Southwell on March 14, 2004. She did not break into double figures on the Flat until 2013 but, in recent seasons, has made an increasing strong impression in that sphere. In fact, 2025, which yielded 40 winners from 268 runners on British soil, at a strike rate of 14%, and nearly £468,000 in prize money. The seasonal highlight, though, was the victory of the prolific Alzahir, ridden by Darragh Keenan, in the Listed Prix de Bonneval at Chantilly on October 2, 2025.
Under National Hunt Rules, Candlish likewise enjoyed her most successful season, numerically and financially, in 2024/25, when she saddled 45 winners from 231 runners, at a strike rate of 19%, and collected just over £359,000 in prize money. She has a handful of high-profile victories to her name, notably including Cross Kennon in the Grade 2 Rendlesham Hurdle at Haydock in 2011, Party Rock in the Grade 3 Alder Hey Children’s Charity Handicap Hurdle at Aintree in 2016 and Big Time Dancer in the Listed Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle at Kempton in 2019.
At the end of November 2025, Candlish was forced to close her yard after two of her horses tested positive for the respiratory illness strangles. However, she was given the all-clear on Christmas Eve and sent out her first winner since, Lewishham Grove, in a maiden hurdle at Newcastle on January 15, 2026.
