Stories from the Saddle: Michael Treneer
- pporacommittee
- Jan 16
- 8 min read
Michael Treneer, a 25-year-old chartered mineral surveyor from Devon, rode his fourth winner at Wadebridge on Sunday, on his family’s homebred mare Bright Aura. A true amateur, who shares the rides on the four pointers trained by mother Deborah with his older brother Barnaby, Michael spoke to Jake Exelby afterwards about his involvement in the sport, his ambitions – both realistic and aspirational – and his competitive rivalry with his elder sibling!
Where are you based?
I live on the family farm at Dean Prior, near Buckfastleigh. You can see the point-to-point course from the farm.
I work for a Belgian company called Sibelco, whose office is opposite Newton Abbot racecourse, which is conducive for watching racing during my lunchbreak and after work!
Talk me through your career in racing so far and how you got into point-to-pointing in the first place?
I can’t remember when I was first put on a pony. Mum and Dad are both hunting people and Mum’s family are from a strong pointing background. My aunt Rebecca married George Welch, and my cousins Hannah and Tamby Welch have both ridden in points.
I grew up with pony club and started pony racing aged nine. I had one winner at Garthorpe and one in Ireland, from three rides on my one day there. They called it pony racing but the horses were 16.2 hands!
Talk me through your first rides in the 2016/2017 season… and your first win on Syracuse’s Dream at Flete Park.
I started pointing aged 16, so I’ve done nine full seasons, and had my first ride on a horse called Doubletoilntrouble. He’d been Barney’s schoolmaster too, and was incredibly safe, but past his best and had lost his enthusiasm.
There were a couple of others that I rode before Syracuse’s Dream, who was usually Barney’s ride, but for some reason he couldn’t be there that day, so I rode him for the first time. We found the right race – the Members – and a win looked unlikely for quite a long way. If you watch the replay, we hardly feature! There were just four runners, my cousin Tamby was second and two friends also rode. None of us had ridden a winner before.
Syracuse’s Dream had a funny habit of stopping travelling with a circuit to go, then not jumping fluently. But he suddenly decided to pick up the bridle between two and three out, joined the leader at the last and ran on.
Tell me about your other winners, including Bright Aura.
Static Jack was probably the most capable horse I rode. He had a bit of a personality but felt classy when he won a decent Mens Open at Cherrybrook. It’s a shame it was behind closed doors during Covid.
Treacys Jim won a funny race at Vauterhill. We weren’t convinced about running but decided to take our chances, as he was a ten-year-old maiden. He dutifully obliged and it was his big day in the sun!
Bright Aura’s a fifth generation homebred, from a line started by my grandfather, and she’s the first of our homebreds I've ridden to win. Will Biddick and Alice Mills both won on her dam, Riteway Round, and she’s the first of her foals we’ve raced.
The vast majority of your rides have been on your family horses. Is that a conscious decision, or would you like more outside rides?
With limited time, I like to focus on getting our own horses as right as possible. It’s competitive getting outside rides, but I’d absolutely take an opportunity if it came.
Before your win on Bright Aura, Barnaby won the same race on Do Whatever in 2024. Is there a rivalry between you?
I don’t think, if you asked any two brothers born just 18 months apart, that they’d say they weren’t competitive! Mum’s keen for us not to ride against each other too regularly because, when we do, neither of us seems to do very well!
We do like to both ride in our Members race and hope we can this year. Barney won it last year with Do Whatever, but I rode Bright Aura in the Maiden that day.
It appears that the two of you tend to keep the rides on the same horses. How do you decide who rides each horse at the outset?
We try to be fair, as Barney and I both want to ride and – ideally – we have a couple each to ride and look for a replacement when one retires. As you say, we try to stick to the same horse, but we both ride them all at home and – if one of us can’t ride on the day – the other will take the mount.
We’ve got four pointers this season. As well as Bright Aura and Do Whatever, there’s Ballydesmond and Pirates’ Tale, who’s owned by the Welchs. We do everything ourselves at home. Barney’s an accountant in London and comes home at the weekend to hunt on a Saturday and go pointing on Sunday.
During the week, my Dad Edward and I do one or two lots before I go to the office. Dad complains that I make him canter in the dark, but needs must!
What has been your career highlight?
It’s hard to choose between my first winner and winning on a homebred last weekend. All winners are satisfying when you’ve done all the work with them yourselves.
Which has been your favourite horse?
Syracuse’s Dream is special to us as a family. He gave both Barney and I our first winner, ran 51 times for us and won four races. In 2018/2019, he ran 11 times, starting on the first day of the season at Buckfastleigh and finishing on the last at Umberleigh. It’s great to have a horse like that.
We still have him at home and friends event him. He’s a mega team chaser and does the odd day’s hunting.
Which horse (not one of your own mounts) would you most like to ride?
Fresh from Sunday, Emma Summersby’s new horse Clonagoose, who won the Restricted. He looks pretty classy and I think he can go through the grades.
Further back, Stuart Sampson’s River Myth (also owned by John Gardener). She wasn’t particularly big, but was gutsy and always ran her race. Attitudes count for a lot. Our friends now have her as a broodmare.
Which other jockeys do you admire?
Being an amateur and doing it for fun, I admire people like that who’ve been successful, so Darren Edwards. And, as a horseman, Will Biddick. There’s a reason he’s ridden so many winners.
What's your favourite course?
I’m morally obliged to say Flete Park as I’ve just taken over as Clerk of the Course! Seriously, it’s a great setting with a great atmosphere. It’s also fun to ride, a quirky, up and down track that feels like you’re on a go-kart or a rollercoaster!
Bratton Down at the end of the season is also good fun, and I really enjoy it, even though I’ve only ridden there three times.
What are your ambitions in pointing and racing?
Before I started, my first ambition was to no longer be a novice rider when I hang up my boots. Obviously they’ve changed the limit from five winners to ten now, which is good as it allows novices to get more experience. However, getting the 5lb allowance in more races is challenging for me personally. I’m 6’2” and sit behind a desk all day, so will find it difficult to do 11st 2lbs on Bright Aura!
I’d love to ride in both Foxhunters’ if I had a suitable horse but a more achievable aim is to win our Members race – Barney has, so I need to too! That’s on a par with the Foxhunters for me.
What would you do if you were in charge of the sport?
I wonder if they could raise the weights by 5lbs, like they’ve done in National Hunt racing. We used to ride at 12st 7lbs and nobody’s getting any smaller. Plenty of hunting people used to have a pointer and bringing down the weights may have closed the door to them.
That could be a benefit to Members races, as it would allow people to dip their toe in the water and hopefully get the bug. It’s an expensive day out, so it would be good to make riding cheaper and more accessible.
Fixture scheduling is also a hot topic. I understand the idea behind spreading them out, but hunts make their income from the meetings and the most successful ones are those with the highest footfall. If you lose a meeting, it’s hard to get it back, and there's got to be a balance.
What’s your opinion on the new ‘blue mic’ social media and video content?
That’s a question and a half! The authorities are trying to cater to a wider demographic, but does that mean you’re no longer talking to certain groups?
I don’t think the sport should be pigeonholed. Ireland seems to be all about Young Horse Maidens but the glorious thing about British pointing is that there are lots of genuine amateurs who do it for enjoyment. We mustn’t forget our roots.
You’re a keen hunter. What do you think will happen to pointing after a hunting ban?
Mum’s family have Dart Vale connections, but we now hunt with the Dartmoor. She hunts twice a week and Barney and I go out on Saturdays and some Tuesdays. We have a separate team of hunters, and have also taken all our pointers out at least three times this season. It settles down the younger ones, and sweetens up the older ones.
Organising fixtures after a ban will be challenging and maintaining enough fixtures for the season might be hard, as people put in their time, effort and money to raise money for the hunt. In the meantime, we’ve all got to do our bit to protect hunting and stand up for it. It means a lot to a lot of people and we can’t just sit there quietly.
What are your non-horsey hobbies?
When you’re pointing, hunting and team chasing for nine months of the year, there’s no time for anything else. But I play cricket for Holbeton, who play at Flete Park, so I see a lot of the course between March and August. I’m a medium-fast bowler – but no Jofra Archer – and a specialist number 11!
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
It would be interesting to trial an extended distance Conditions race early in the season. he longer races tend to be Opens, later in the season on better ground. What about some of those races for lower class stayers?
Michael Treneer is sponsored by South Hams Arborists this season.
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