GRAND AMBITION
A fourth Cup wins looms on the horizon for Gerry Ryan, writes
GERRY Ryan never thought he’d own a racehorse. For a humble kid from Bendigo, one of nine, a trip to the track was something special. But he’ll be at Flemington on Tuesday, in his corporate box, hair freshly trimmed, cheering on what could be just another winner.
Since he was last at the course, when he won the Australian Cup in March, Ryan has collected another five race trophies.
He is hoping for his fourth Melbourne Cup win with Grand Promenade. Or the horse who last year won him his third Cup, Twilight Payment. Both are very good chances.
Grand Promenade impressed at his last-start win in early October, while co-owner Nick Williams thinks Twilight Payment is in better form than last year.
“I never get overly bullish because it is one of the toughest races in Australia, if not the toughest,” Ryan says.
“I think Grand Promenade will run the two miles out. His last performance was excellent.”
Williams badged Ryan the “lucky charm” owner after they won the 2017 Cup with Rekindling. Yet Ryan, whose worth is somewhere north of half a billion dollars, dismissively describes himself as a “B-grade” owner. Many would disagree.
His first Cup win was with his first Cup runner, Americain, in 2010.
Ryan had hoped for a strong showing, though he didn’t dare to imagine winning. His “feet are more firmly placed on the ground” these days.
But he alludes to Americain’s French jockey, Gerald Mosse, who still talks about the post-race party in 2010 and being bailed up for autographs long after winning.
Mosse said the victory turned him from a top jockey into a “rock star”.
Ryan’s understated manner had shielded him from the undue attention that some other high flyers attract. Winning a Melbourne Cup, as it did for Mosse, changed that.
Ryan was well-known for building Jayco, a once-tiny caravan company founded on a $10,000 loan, into a sprawling enterprise. He was the generous boss who offered incentives to staff. His mother, a “people person”, taught him “the value of respecting people and making sure that you stay close to your good friends”.
Ryan’s success was built on simple principles, such as don’t look back and be prepared to change. His interests have been diverse, from wineries to Broadway stage production.
And he is buoyed by the prospect of his Moulin Rouge hitting the stage in Melbourne (and four other cities internationally in the next nine months) after the Flemington carnival.
Ryan was noticed after Kathy Watt won at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He had paid for her training beforehand; since then his involvement in the sport has been said to benefit every Australian elite cyclist. He has had substantial ownership chunks in
basketball and rugby league. A fixture at the Tour de France, he owns a global cycling team, and has evolved, in retirement, to be known as Australia’s biggest sporting benefactor. Not that he feels old: a septuagenarian, he feels like a 50-year-old, albeit a “slow one”.
He owns a “small” thoroughbred property in Nagambie, where his greatest pleasure is feeding horses from the back of the ute with his grandkids.
He loves that the grandkids see a horse’s journey from being foaled to racing at the track.
He always puts $10 on for each of them when one of his horses race and claims to fret that this may be setting a poor example.
His love of horse ownership goes back to his first winner, Catherine Mary, among a string of fillies Ryan bought with mates on the St Kilda Football Club board.
The first win matters. Another bigtime owner, Brae Sokolski, who partowns Cup favourite Incentivise, long displayed a framed photo of his first winner, a maiden at Mortlake.
For Ryan, it was at Seymour, and he remembers it well. “Every win is special,” he says.
“It doesn’t matter where it’s at because they are so hard to get.”
Last year’s Cup elevated Ryan to the exclusive club of three or more Cup winners – headed by Lloyd Williams, who has seven.
He is grateful for being offered a place in Williams’ syndicates, which have also included their dear friend, music icon Michael Gudinski, who died earlier this year.
Ryan scoffs at any comparisons. Williams is “unique”.
“He puts a lot of time and a lot of thought into it,” Ryan says.
“He is the master when it comes to Melbourne Cups. I’ve just been very fortunate to have good people. I just hope that Lloyd keeps on getting more Melbourne Cups, and hopefully I’m invited into the syndicate.”
Ask Ryan if he is ahead, and he suggests you talk to his accountant.
“He doesn’t talk to me during Spring Carnival,” Ryan says. “Well, except if I win.”