Harrington receives Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit

Jessica Harrington was honoured at a spectacular night at the 34th Cartier Racing Awards at the Dorchester in London on Wednesday evening, receiving the Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit at an event where Irish-trained horses took five of the eight equine awards.

City Of Troy won the evening’s premier equine accolade as he was crowned the Cartier Horse of the Year, in addition to the Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt award, after capturing the Betfred Derby, Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International during a superb summer.

The Cartier/Daily Telegraph Award of Merit goes to the person or persons who, in the opinion of the 16-strong Cartier Jury, has/have done the most for European racing and/or breeding either over their lifetime or within the past 12 months and on that basis, Moone-based trainer Harrington is a fully deserving winner. 

She has blazed a trail during her 35 years in training and the hugely successful dual-purpose handler again challenged convention when receiving the Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit, which she accepted with a simple “thank you” before returning to her seat.

Coaxed into a few more words afterwards, she added: “It’s unbelievable. When Marcus [Armytage of The Daily Telegraph] rang me up to say that I had been awarded this and gave me the date, I said ‘I think I’m away then, I don’t think I will be able to come’. He said that I had too. It’s an absolute honour to get this award. I just look at the people who have been awarded it before and I think ‘God, how am I upsides all those people?’.

“I’ve been very lucky all my life. I’ve had a wonderful career and, every time I want to do something, I want to get better at it. It’s great to have all my friends and family here with me when you get something like this.

“When I was eventing, I had no thoughts of training racehorses – I didn’t start to do that until I got to a fair ripe old age and I’ve kept on going. One thing led to another and I was very lucky in my life – one door closed and another door opened. Whether it’s been a case of the right place at the right time.

“Peter Queally was a great help when I first started training, he was my first big owner to come in and say ‘right, let’s have some horses to do this and do this’. I ended up having a Cheltenham winner and that was the only thing to have – you want to have a Royal Ascot winner or a Cheltenham winner.

“Moscow Flyer was in an era of very good two-mile chasers and we had great fun training him. He was one of those horses that I didn’t really appreciate until he retired because, every time I ran him in a race, he either won it or fell over. He just kept on delivering.

“I’m mainly Flat racing now and it’s fantastic. I’ve been very lucky because I’ve been supported by some wonderful owners on the Flat and a lot of owner/breeders. We just have to keep on working and hoping I can keep on producing results for them.

“It was great to get a Group One with Hotazhell as we hadn’t had one for a few years and you are always striving to do that. When you get one again, you think it’s great to get that in the bag, but we actually want some more. We can always dream of Classics and there are lots of things I still haven’t won, so I still dream and want to win.

“On the National Hunt, I suppose there are three horses that stand out – Moscow Flyer, Jezki and Sizing John. On the Flat, Alpha Centauri was just the most amazing filly. To then train her two siblings Alpine Star and Discoveries to win Group Ones was absolutely fantastic.

“I’d like to do more. We’d like to win more in France and Australia. I’m always pushing the boundaries and wanting to do more.”

The judges of the awards gave their reasonings for picking Harrington for this prestigious award:

The Cartier/The Daily Telegraph Award of Merit for 2024 goes to Jessica Harrington. A supremely talented horsewoman, the Classic-winning handler scaled the heights of three-day eventing before becoming one of the most successful trainers in Flat and National Hunt racing.

Equally adept at preparing precocious juveniles or staying chasers, Jessica started out with three horses but has risen to the top in both codes. She has sent out winners at all the major jumps meetings and is the most prolific female trainer ever at the Cheltenham Festival. On the Flat, she counts success in Ireland, the UK and France among her numerous top-level victories.

Although born in London in February, 1947, Jessica Jane Harrington (née Fowler) hails from a family that was once one of the largest landowners in Ireland. The daughter of Bryan and Mary Fowler, her ancestry can be traced back to Robert Fowler, who was appointed Bishop of Killaloe and archbishop of Dublin in the 18th century. Subsequent generations settled in Meath and the family farm at Rahinston, from where Jessica’s nephew Harry and his wife Lorna now train and breed horses.

Jessica’s father Bryan Fowler, who was born in Kells, Co Meath, was a decorated officer in the British Army, serving in the Royal Artillery and rising to the rank of Brigadier. In addition to seeing action in both the first and second World Wars, Brigadier Fowler was a talented rider, becoming an instructor in the army equitation school and riding under rules as an amateur, in addition to helping the Great Britain team secure a silver medal in polo at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1944, he married Mary Walford, with her first husband having died in a plane crash three years earlier. She too was an accomplished rider, winning the side-saddle hunter championship at the Dublin Horse Show.

Their first child John, who was 13 months older than Jessica, continued the family association with equestrian sports and was unlucky not to ride in the three-day event competition at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City as he broke his collarbone on the eve of the competition. John proved a highly successful amateur jockey, partnering more than 260 winners under rules including the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham in 1978 and 1979. As a trainer, he won the 1989 Irish Grand National with Maid Of Money and the 1998 Melling Chase at Aintree with Opera Hat, despite operating with a small string due to his farming commitments.

Jessica spent her first two years in England before moving back to Ireland after her father retired from the British Army in 1949, with the family initially living in Culmullen and Rathmolyon before Bryan inherited Rahinston from his uncle in 1957. Homeschooled until 12, Jesssica grew up surrounded by animals and rode from an early age. “I don’t remember learning how to ride,” she once told Attheraces. “I was always around animals – cows, pigs, hens – you just took it for granted that animals were around. We were given a lot of freedom and used to go off riding everywhere we wanted to. It was great fun.” Sent to Hatherop boarding school in Gloucestershire, Jessica attended finishing school in Paris before completing a secretarial course. Her life in the saddle flourished, going from winning the pony club championships at Highgrove at the age of 11 to riding at Burghley at 18 and Badminton two years later. The same year, 1967, she and John became the first brother and sister to ride at the European Eventing Championships at Punchestown, with Jessica finishing sixth.

In 1968, she married Cotswold farmer David Lloyd and they had two children, James and Tara. When the marriage ended, she moved back to Ireland. She had previously met Johnny Harrington at a Dublin party when she was 18, and the two soon started stepping out together. The son of a Cork paint manufacturer, Johnny started his working life in the family business but left after three years, briefly working for trainer Gordon Richards in the UK before accepting a job with the Curragh Bloodstock Agency.

Johnny and Jessica would complement each other brilliantly, with his bonhomie and her steely determination. “He was a people person and I was a horse person,” she would later say on Luck On Sunday. “Johnny loved people, I didn’t. I loved horses but people were my problem. He would get on an aeroplane and, by the time he got off, he’d be best friends with the people who sat either side of him. I’d get onto an aeroplane and sit there saying ‘don’t you dare talk to me!’” The couple were married in August, 1976, with Jessica and her children moving to Johnny’s Commonstown Stud near Moone in Co Kildare, from where she continues to train to this day. Johnny already had a permit to train a few horses, although his main focus was buying and selling National Hunt prospects, and Jessica’s future head lad Eamonn Leigh did the lion’s share of the training itself. Horses to pass through Commonstown when Johnny held the licence included Gay Future, who won a Thurles bumper in April, 1974, before gaining notoriety as part of a betting coup after being sold on. Hav-A-Heart won the Irish Lincolnshire for Johnny in 1985, wearing Jessica’s colours.

Jessica continued with three-day eventing on her return to Ireland and her career reached another level after her father sent her two of his homebred mares to ride. She would partner one of them, Amoy, to finish third at Badminton in 1983 and the duo narrowly missed out on a team bronze at the substitute Olympics at Fontainebleau in 1980, with Ireland’s equestrian team deciding to join the boycott of the games in Moscow. Just like her brother, Jessica would endure heartache at the Olympics itself in 1984, as her mount was found to be lame shortly after arriving in California. She would return to the Olympics some 28 years later, acting as a high-performance advisor to the Irish team at London 2012. During her eventing career, she represented Ireland in four European championships and a world championship.

In addition to her eventing, Jessica would often accompany her husband on trips to the UK and Australia, gaining valuable training insights from the likes of Peter Walwyn, John Dunlop and David Morley. This knowledge, allied to an instinct for horses honed from her years eventing, would stand Jessica in good stead when she took over the permit from Johnny in 1987.

A full licence followed in 1989, just months after her youngest daughter Kate was born, when three horses that they had hoped to sell didn’t pass the vet and owners had to be found for them. “I think some other trainers looked at me and thought ‘she won’t be around for long, she has a husband and three young children’,” she would later say. “I’d just had Kate when I got my licence in 1989 and they really looked at me and said ‘she can’t do all those things!’. I survived.” Her training career kicked into gear when the Earl of Dunraven, one of Johnny’s many acquaintances, sent her two three-year-old fillies, Mountain Stage and Lady Olein, in the autumn of 1991. Lady Olein provided the trainer with a first winner when taking a juvenile hurdle by 15 lengths at Leopardstown that November, before going on to Listed success over hurdles the following year. A focus on the major meetings paid handsome dividends when Jessica became the first woman to train the winner of the Galway Hurdle in 1994 with Oh So Grumpy. Dance Beat raised the profile of the yard further in 1996 when winning The Ladbroke at Leopardstown and the Champion Novice Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival.

Space Trucker, victorious in the 1996 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, yielded a first success at the Cheltenham Festival in the 1999 Grand Annual. The same year witnessed the debut of Moscow Flyer at Fairyhouse. Picked up for IR£17,000 by Johnny, the son of Moscow Society would be the first horse owned by Brian Kearney, who wanted a new interest in his retirement.

Described as “the horse of a lifetime” by Jessica, Moscow Flyer would become a superb hurdler and one of the great two-mile chasers of modern times, with 13 G1 wins to his name during a glittering career. He beat Istabraq over hurdles and formed part of a triumvirate of great chasers later in his career, coming out on top over Azertyuiop and Well Chief in a sensational renewal of the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park in December 2004. Moscow Flyer won at all the major Festivals in Ireland and the UK, including an Arkle and two editions of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham.

Jezki provided Jessica with a first Champion Hurdle win in 2014, edging out My Tent Or Yours, trained by her great friend Nicky Henderson, with the JP McManus-owned duo serving up a thrilling race. The trainer returned to Cheltenham three years later to saddle a first runner in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Sizing John, who proved his class and stamina to triumph in chasing’s blue riband. Sizing John became the first horse to sweep the Gold Cups at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown in the same season, while a sensational spring of 2017 also saw Our Duke win the Irish Grand National.

Multiple G1 winner Supasundae, owned like Sizing John by Ann and Alan Potts, narrowly failed in providing the trainer with a full-set of Cheltenham’s traditional championship races when filling the runner-up spot in the 2018 Stayers’ Hurdle. To date, Jessica has sent out more than 40 G1 wins in National Hunt races, while she is the most successful female trainer at the Cheltenham Festival, with 11 wins at the meeting.

Jessica would play a starring role in the BBC series ‘Turf Wars’, a fly-on-the-wall documentary that followed the workings of her stables over six months of the 2001/2002 jumps season. Producer Karen Rodgers was handed complete control and captured the ups and downs of running a yard, with memorable moments including some choice language from the trainer on the gallops and a local priest who ran a tipping service from his pulpit.

“It’s good for racing but it’s also good to see what actually goes in,” she reflected on the programme in The Sunday Independent earlier this year. “People think we swan around, we go racing, we drink champagne and so forth. They forget all that goes on the other six days of the week, 24/7. And also all the disasters you have. The industry really needs people to realise it’s hard work and it takes an awful lot of people. I wouldn’t be getting winners if it wasn’t for the staff here. I’m really only the front person.” A dual-purpose trainer from the start of her career, Jessica sent out her first Group-race winner on the Flat in October, 2004, when Jazz Princess won the C L Weld Park Stakes. Jumbajukiba, Curtain Call and Laughing Lashes further enhanced her status on the level with Group wins, before the trainer secured a breakthrough G1 victory with Pathfork in the 2010 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.

Bred by the Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings, Pathfork was purchased at Keeneland by Bonnie and Tommy Hamilton’s Silverton Hill partnership. Both owner and breeder would become long-term allies of the trainer, who received several yearlings from the Niarchos Family following her success with the Distorted Humor colt.

Alpha Centauri, a Niarchos homebred, proved a banner horse for Jessica and provided her with a first Classic success in the 2018 Irish 2,000 Guineas. The filly would go on to break the track record at Ascot with a six-length demolition of her rivals in the Coronation Stakes before graduating to further G1 glory in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and Deauville’s Prix Jacques Le Marois, a race sponsored by her owner/breeder. Alpha Centauri received the Cartier Three-Year-Old Filly award at the 2018 Cartier Racing Awards. Two of her siblings would also strike at G1 level for the trainer, with Alpine Star also annexing the Coronation Stakes in 2020 and Discoveries taking the 2021 Moyglare Stud Stakes.

Albigna struck in the famous Niarchos silks for the trainer in the 2019 Prix Marcel Boussac, just days after fellow juvenile filly Millisle captured the Cheveley Park Stakes. Her good run with juveniles continued the following year as Lucky Vega dominated the Keeneland Pheonix Stakes, handing major international owner Zhang Yuesheng with a first top-level success. Lucky Vega would go close to Classic glory, finishing third in the 2,000 Guineas, before the owner and trainer teamed up with Magical Lagoon, who followed up victory in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2022 with another tenacious win in the Irish Oaks.

Jessica’s most recent of 13 G1 wins on the Flat came in last month’s Futurity Trophy at Doncaster with Hotazhell, who fittingly carried the same Silverton Hill colours as her first top-level winner, Pathfork, 14 years earlier.

There have been challenges along the way. Johnny died in 2014 following a lengthy battle with cancer, while her brother John was tragically killed in a farm accident in 2008. Jessica broke a bone in her neck while riding in Kenya in 2005 and was diagnosed with breast cancer in October, 2022. Two of her daughters have become an integral part of Commonstown, with Emma managing the business side of the operation and Kate running much of the day-to-day running of the stables. Emma’s husband Richie, with years of expertise running Punchestown racecourse, also plays a key role in the marketing and public relations side of the business.

Appearing as Mrs John Harrington in the racecard (a superstition from her days as an owner), Jessica is not someone who has necessarily compiled an endless list of firsts as a woman in racing. Anne Bullitt Biddle was the first woman to officially train a winner under rules in Ireland in 1966, Annemarie Crowley the first to be a champion trainer in 1993, and Frances Crowley the first to win a Classic in 2005. However, she has stood on the shoulders of those pioneers and raised the bar significantly for women in racing. The novelty of a female trainer has long worn thin, thanks in no small part to her exploits over the past 35 years.

This is perhaps unsurprising given her background in eventing, one of the few team sports where men and women compete on level terms. “People love to say ‘Oh, you’re a woman trainer, you’ve done this and you’ve done that’ but I’m a trainer”, she told Sky Sports Racing. “Rachael Blackmore has the same problem – she’s seen as a female jockey and if you ask her, she’ll say ‘I’m a jockey’. It’s a totally level playing field. We have no allowances for being a female – the horses do but we don’t!”

CARTIER/DAILY TELEGRAPH AWARD OF MERIT 

2024 Jessica Harrington 

2023 Jeff Smith 

2022 Kirsten Rausing 

 2021 David Elsworth 

2020 John Gosden MBE 

2019 Pat Smullen 

2018 David Oldrey 

2017 Sir Michael Stoute 

2016 Aidan O'Brien 

2015 Jack Berry 

2014 Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum 

2013 Jim Bolger 

2012 Team Frankel 

2011 Barry Hills 

2010 Richard Hannon 

2009 John Oxx 

2008 Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum 

2007 The Niarchos family 

2006 Peter Willett 

2005 Henry Cecil 

2004 David & Patricia Thompson 

2003 Lord Oaksey 

2002 Prince Khalid Abdullah bin Abdullah 

2001 John Magnier 

2000 HH the Aga Khan 

1999 Peter Walwyn 

1998 The Head family 

1997 Sir Peter O'Sullevan 

1996 Frankie Dettori 

1995 John Dunlop 

1994 Marquess of Hartington 

1993 François Boutin 

1992 Lester Piggott 

1991 Henri Chalhoub