Starter Shane Ryan’s love story for the horses
ERA STARTER SHANE RYAN HAS THE BEST JOB IN BUSINESS prize purse (Dh36.7 million) minimum age of horses competing
The beautiful sport of horse racing can be a risky affair at times, never more so than in the vicinity of the starting gates. Standing to one side, quietly analysing everything is the man solely responsible for ensuring that the next few minutes proceed in as calm and efficient a manner as circumstances allow.
Shane Ryan directs his team of 16 well-trained men and his long-time assistant Tino Berninger. Ryan is like a conductor with his orchestra except horses can be decidedly less wellbehaved than musicians. Ryan directs as, in a specific order, each horse is lead into their designated starting gate (stall). Timing is crucial and Ryan watches with practised eyes for any signs that could lead to a problem, immediately commanding his men to bring extra help where it’s needed.
It’s a privilege to watch 18 people working as one with very little noise or drama, there’s no place for egos here.
Ryan is a native of one of Ireland’s most stunning tourist spots, Cashel in County Tipperary, home of ‘The Rock’.
As with most Irish families, Ryan grew up with ponies, show jumpers and hunters around him and horses in his DNA. Fresh out of school at 16 he went to the north of England to learn more and try his luck as a jockey.
Jimmy Fitzgerald was the first stop off before moving to a smaller trainer where schooling [over fences and hurdles] would be more likely to come his way. Owen Brennan
continued Ryan’s equine education allowing him race rides and a few winners. Moving south, to Epsom and Reg ‘Handicap King’ Akehurst, Ryan spent five years under the tutelage of the renowned trainer. He says: “I rode about 25 winners for him, he didn’t have a lot of jumpers, all flat horse and any that needed sweetening up with a run over jumps, I rode them for a couple of seasons.
“I was lucky that I got to ride at Cheltenham in the Triumph and the Supreme Novice hurdles. I remember Sir Mark Prescott called him ‘Uncle Reg’, that’s how much respect he had for him.”
Great stories
Ryan talked at length of his time with Reg Akehurst, speaking in the revered tones reserved for someone much admired and is pleased that they got to meet up a couple of years ago, “We had a few drinks in the Rubbing House at Epsom and a great chin wag. He tells some great stories, it was good to see him again,” he says.
Ryan left Epsom and returned north to Peter Easterby, still harbouring a dream of being a jump jockey but life changed with a financially lucrative job fastest time: Dubai Millennium in 2000 at Nad Al Sheba most wins per trainer: Saeed Bin Surour 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2014, 2015 offer to work in Japan for three months. Dubai had been on the radar for some years before he arrived here in 2000 with his wife Wendy, he to John Hyde and Wendy to Satish Seemar. Ryan was soon filling in his afternoon hours working as part of the team on the starting gates.
Soon-to-retire George McGrath was starter and he was replaced by Kieran O’Shea, who left to take up a similar role in England. Nick Payne followed but he too left after a year.
Ryan, already in the position of assistant, was asked by Frank Gabriel to step up to the role of starter. The forwardthinking Gabriel arranged for his new