Tahlia Fenlon on the board in South East Queensland

By Jordan Gerrans 

Central Queensland youngster Tahlia Fenlon is off the mark in her new adventure after transferring her apprenticeship to Eagle Farm.

Fenlon was honoured at the 2022 TAB Queensland Thoroughbred Awards in Brisbane as the Country Apprentice Jockeys Premiership champion for the 2021-22 season.

After learning under veteran Rockhampton trainer Fred Smith in recent years, the 20-year-old has recently gone on loan to Brisbane trainer Chris Munce for a three month period.

The lightweight hoop is hopeful of extending the stay at Eagle Farm into a permanent job if all goes well.

The daughter of racing administrator Tony Fenlon, Tahlia picked up her first South East Queensland victory of the new stint in the city on the Gold Coast Polytrack on Saturday.

Fenlon has been riding at tracks such as Ipswich, Gatton and the Gold Coast since relocating south.

She landed her first winner in the area at her ninth ride. 

After riding just over 100 winners in Central Queensland, the talented youngster felt the time was right to make the move to town.

“I have no country claim left and I have two kilograms at the provincials and I had someone ask me if I would be keen to come down,” Fenlon said.

“The opportunity came up and I thought I would give it a go.

“Chris called and said he had been watching me ride and offered to take me on with a three month loan. The plan is to extend the loan if it all goes well.”

Fenlon collected her first SEQ winner aboard Cordyceps Miracle for the Edmonds stable on the Polytrack on Saturday.

As the staying gelding did last start, Fenlon led the majority of the way over 1900 metres on Saturday in Benchmark 55 grade.

“He did win very good,” Fenlon said.

“I saw he had won at his last start to with Bailey Wheeler over the same distance, so I was pretty confident that it was my best ride for the day.”

Cordyceps Miracle is prepared by the father-and-son team of Trent and Toby Edmonds and they were keen to claim in the race after Wheeler won on the gelding last start in similar fashion.

“She has come down from Rockhampton, based with Chris Munce and we are looking to claim in the race,” Trent said pre-race. 

“Tahlia claims two.”

Fenlon is going to focus her attention on riding in SEQ in the coming weeks instead of flying back to ride at Mackay and Rockhampton during their mid-week provincial meetings.

“They want me to give it a miss for a little while, just because I do not have many winners left until I lose my two kilogram claim,” Fenlon said.

“I probably need it down here more so at the moment, so I will try and keep it down here for a bit.”

Fenlon is likely to head to the Gold Coast Polytrack and Toowoomba this coming Saturday in search of more winners.