Happy to be living the dream
AS A child growing up on the doorstop of the Big Easy, Janel Ryan dreamt off owning just one horse.
Born in the United States, the experienced trainer arrived in Queensland more than 30 years ago and spent more than 11 years living in Cairns before eventually moving to Tolga on the Atherton Tablelands.
Now considered one of the leading trainers throughout north Queensland with a quality stable of horses, it was not always that way for her.
Growing up in the southern US state of Louisiana near the city of New Orleans, nicknamed the “Big Easy” for its around-the-clock nightlife, she dreamt of having her own horse.
“I always loved horses but we never had them growing up,” Ryan said.
“I was horse mad, looking out of car windows all the time trying to see them.
“We lived in a tiny little house on a suburban street. There is no way in the world that I could have had a horse, even though I wanted one.
“I would have tied it to a tree in the backyard if I was allowed to get one.
“My mother came over to Australia years later and told me that she would have gotten me a horse if she knew I was going to end up training them like I do now.”
How jealous would a teenage Janel be of today’s Janel Ryan?
Over the next two days, double-figure numbers of horses will run around the Cairns Jockey Club track across the Cairns Amateurs Carnival with ‘Janel Ryan’ listed next to them in the race book as their trainer.
She departed the Louisiana city on the Mississippi River, near the Gulf of Mexico, at age 23 and relocated to Australia.
Many years later, running a barber shop in Cairns, she met jockey Ronnie Ryan and, as they say, the rest is history.
The Ryans share the workload of training their strong team of horses.
Ronnie riding the horses in work each morning while Janel does the feeding, all the book work as well as the nominating and accepting of horses in future races.
While the horses are the priority these days, the Ryans still have a soft spot for the Big Easy on the other side of the world.
“It is the funnest place, everyone that goes there likes it because the people are so nice,” Janel said. “Ronnie has been twice and he just loves it, too. “The food is nice, the people are nice and the music, it is a great place to be.”
After securing Cairns Cup number three just last month, the Ryans are going in search of Cairns Amateurs Cup number two tomorrow, after Seafight lifted the 2013 Cup.
The Ryan team was set to have three chances in Saturday’s Cairns Amateurs Cup: We Just Love It, How Can I Help and Binary, before disaster struck.
Binary, a winner of two races at Cannon Park recently, will go to the paddock on the Gold Coast after suffering an injury earlier this week.
“It is sad for us, horse and the owners,” she said.
We Just Love It has not started since winning the Cairns Cup by a nostril last month and Janel says the only thing that will stop him getting beaten is the 59kg he will need to carry.
“He has trained on very well, if he gets beaten then it will be the handicapper who beats him,” she said.
“There will be nothing else that will beat him.”
How Can I Help claimed the Innisfail Produce Cup over 1800m three weeks ago and steps up to the 2100m Amateurs Cup tomorrow afternoon.
MY MOTHER CAME OVER TO AUSTRALIA AND TOLD ME THAT SHE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN ME A HORSE IF SHE KNEW I WAS GOING TO END UP TRAINING THEM