Trainer Profile

County Of Origin: Kildare

Date of licence: 2014

First winner: Prince Connoisseur (Pat Smullen) Dundalk, January 24, 2014 

First Group race winner: Keeper Of Time (Ronan Whelan) Leopardstown, April 12, 2021

Significant horses: Keeper Of Time, Bounce The Blues, Prince Connoisseur, Strategic Heights, Spruce Meadows, Not A Bad Oul Day, Have A Nice Day, Dragons Call, Cleveland Street, Swish. 

Did you know:

John is the only son of the late Jimmy Feane, a licensed trainer in the late 1970s and early 1980s and best known as head groom in Moyglare Stud Farm for over 30 years. John is also the nephew of Declan Gillespie, who was first jockey for Jim Bolger for many years as well as being part of the Vincent O’Brien team in Ballydoyle in the late 1980s before proving to be a successful trainer in his own right.

John enjoyed six winners as an amateur rider and he rode both his first (Green Debate (Cork, April 2004)) and final winner (Graduand (Naas, January 2005) for the then Curragh-based trainer Frances Crowley. Frances' late husband Pat Smullen rode John's first winner as a trainer, Prince Connoisseur, at Dundalk in January of 2014 and he was also on board Strategic Heights who was to give Feane three more wins over the course of the next five weeks.

John enjoyed notable handicap success with the likes of Spruce Meadows, Dragons Call, Not A Bad Oul Day and Have A Nice Day. Bounce The Blues was his first Listed race winner at Naas in August 2020 and in winning the Group 3 Ballylinch "Priory Belle" 1,000 Guineas Trial Stakes, Keeper Of Time became his first Group race winner at Leopardstown in April of the following year.