Kennedy, a significant investor in racing through his luxury goods brand's sponsorship of major races in Victoria, made quite the splash in 2019, bringing world famous horseman Monty Roberts to Australia to helps establish Kennedy Racing, with a welfare-first, horse-focussed ethos.
Roberts traversed the sales grounds of Australia, working as an advisor to help Kennedy select the horses which were going to be at the vanguard of the Kennedy Racing's imprint on Australian racing.
Under the care of Irish-born trainer Caroline Jennings, a student of Roberts' methodology, that first generation of Kennedy Racing purchases are making their mark, with both Arabian Hussey (Al Maher) and Written Miss (Written Tycoon) recording metropolitan victories last month.
Monty Roberts inspecting a yearling at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale
For Kennedy, the run of racetrack success is the end result of a lot of hard work from his team.
"I set out a two or three-year plan from buying yearlings, and it’s not easy to get success quickly in that situation. We were not an established stable, we were starting from the ground up with yearlings," he told TDN AusNZ.
"Strategically, I thought from a business plan perspective that it was a three-year plan. It was based around having bought three years' worth of horses and running the operation for three years. After that, if you are having no success on the racetrack, then you probably need to rethink what you are doing.
"Success wasn't necessarily a financial return, but it was runs on the board in terms of wins. We wanted to get results, in a more nurtured, horse-first approach in training and care. That was my philosophy, I wanted to see if that was an approach that could work and could produce results."
Lucky's battle embodies owner's passion
Passion clearly drives Kennedy's investment and it is perhaps most evident, not when he talks about those who have made their mark on the track, but those which best embody the success of that horse-first approach.
Lucky Lad (Sebring) is a two-start maiden who cost Kennedy $90,000 out of the 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale and whose journey to the racetrack has captivated his owner's attention over the past two years.
Lucky Lad as a yearling
"We have a horse that is currently running called Lucky Lad, who has only had a couple of starts. He's a good horse, and we nearly lost him. I reckon I've paid twice what he cost me as a yearling to purchase to keep him alive," Kennedy said.
"He got an abscess in his foot and he nearly lost that foot. Then he got an infection in his hock. He was in hospital for the better part of a year and there were days when it was touch and go.
"I never once thought about cutting my losses. I did everything I could to keep him (Lucky Lad) alive." - James Kennedy
"I never once thought about cutting my losses. I did everything I could to keep him (Lucky Lad) alive. That was my first step. At that point, you don’t care if he is going to race or not.
"To see him 18 months later, everything that he has had to do. His entire foot had to regrow, and to see him out there running. He's just getting started as a racehorse, he never had an education as a yearling or a 2-year-old because he got so sick pretty quickly. I just want him happy and running."
Born to run
What sits at the heart of Kennedy Racing's ethos is that horses love to race and James and his team will do whatever it takes to give them the chance to do that for as long as they can.
"What a lot of people outside the industry may not realise is that these horses love what they are doing. As much as you can paint a picture that horses don’t like racing, and all the negativity that people want to draw out of racing, the actual love a horse has for racing and working and being competitive, is a sight to be seen," he said.
"Lucky Lad is a great example. He fought to want to live, and now he's out there having the time of his life, because that's what he wants to do. At any time, if he thinks he is not up for it, if we think his body can't handle it, we will look for something else."
James Kennedy
Kennedy is at pains to point out that Kennedy Racing was never set up as a statement against the current practices in the racing industry. He sees the welfare focus shown by almost everyone in the industry and believes it is one of its greatest assets. What he wanted to do was enshrine it in his own way of doing things.
"All the people in the industry that I speak to, they are welfare-centric, they care about horses and are supportive of our approach. The difference for me, in my situation, is that I own my horses, so their fate is of my choosing," he said.
"All the people in the industry that I speak to, they are welfare-centric, they care about horses and are supportive of our approach." - James Kennedy
"I won't run a horse if it is not healthy enough, or if it could get hurt, or if it's sore. One of the challenges trainers face, you are often controlled by circumstances outside your control, where you might have owners that have expectations about results and outcomes. People have to run businesses and earn incomes. These are elements that people within racing have to navigate.
"For me, I am in the fortunate space that I don't have those challenges to navigate, therefore I can really prioritise what I do over a horse's racing. I can have different priorities."
Pushing welfare to the forefront
In a broader sense, Kennedy sees the equine welfare issue in racing as being much about perception. He feels, as a whole, the industry needs to be better at promoting what it does in the interests of its equine athletes.
'There are incredible trainers, doing incredibly wonderful things, for horses and with horses, and I think the media attention seems to be on the problems and the things that go wrong, and the people that seem to do wrong," he said.
"Those things, those negative things, they aren't the definition of the industry by any stretch of the imagination, I think that's what gets lost a bit.
"We need to be better pushing the good that we do. It seems we are always defending a problem, rather than showing everything we do for the horse."
Jennings in control
What started out as a 'shed and a few boxes' at Pakenham a couple of years ago, is now a fully fledged racing operation under the trusted eye of Caroline Jennings, who prior to taking the head trainer role, had experience working at renowned farms such as Coolmore, Cambridge Stud and Waikato Stud as well as with Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.
Caroline Jennings
"Her knowledge of horses is very extensive; If anything, her knowledge is more horses than training, if that makes sense. She only took the role a year ago, so her results have been pretty stellar for a new trainer in this environment," Kennedy said.
"What we've achieved, literally from nothing, in a two-year period, buying some horses to where we are today, is something I know that I am proud of, and I know the team is as well."
After working closely with the stable in its infancy, Kennedy has stepped back from Kennedy Racing as it heads into its third year.
"I was more hands on early days, because it was a new business, and I wanted to know what was going on and to keep my finger on the pulse," he said.
"Since transitioning to Caroline as trainer, we have built up the team, we've got rigour in our operations now. I'm pretty passive.
"I like to know what the horses are doing, what her plans are, where they're at health and performance-wise and so on, but that is it. I leave the rest to Caroline and her team."
Results follow good work
The results of the past couple of months has certainly vindicated his faith in Jennings and her team. In a remarkable run of form, Kennedy Racing horses won five of eight races contested between October 22 and December 5.
Emerging at this time were two very smart 3-year-old fillies, Written Miss and Arabian Hussey, who look set to be the flagbearers for the maroon and white Kennedy Racing colours.
Written Miss
"Written Miss and Arabian Hussey, they are both special horses. They have been up in lights, the two of them, in recent times. They are true stablemates in that they are always next to each other. They gee each other up and seem to walk around and try to better each other in the stable," Kennedy said.
Both have big plans for the autumn, with Arabian Hussey among the nominations for the G1 Kennedy Australian Guineas.
Kennedy also has a soft spot for his other winning filly, Plucky Pirouette (Brazen Beau).
"She is an incredibly honest horse. She just competes and competes. If you put her in a maiden or a Group 1, she'd finish in the same position, she just always competes in whatever level she is in," he said.
Kennedy's plans for sourcing the next generation of Kennedy Racing stars are not yet fully formulated, but he is likely to focus on the Victorian sales over the coming months.
"We haven't made a decision yet and we didn't go to Magic Millions. It wasn't a top-of-mind priority on travel at the moment. It's probably an easier task to think about making purchases at the Melbourne sales. We have still got a couple of months before we make that decision," he said.
"We are committed to Kennedy Racing. We are still looking to the future and we are still looking to this year, next year and beyond. I'm pleased with where we're at and the success we are having."
