RYAN MIGHTY
Galway’s Rossa stars
FOOTBALL super-agent Kia Joorabchian’s made a great new signing when he snapped up Rossa Ryan.
And the pair look set for more celebrations at Newmarket today.
Galwayman Ryan is just shy of his target of 100 winners for the season and now has his eye on capturing a first Group One victory.
“I’m five off the 100, so I’m hopeful I can do that,” said Ryan. “I would love to win a Group One. It’s not impossible this weekend.
“If Go Bears Go shows the form that he did when we won the Railway Stakes at the Curragh he has a big shout.”
Go Bears Go carries Joorabchian’s purple and white silks in the Group One Middle Park.
“I think he’s in better form than he’s been all year,” added Ryan.
Ryan also has a good word for Thunder Love in the Cheveley Park Stakes, also a Group One, for his boss who operates under the Amo banner.
Chance
“She was unlucky the last day as I got no run,” he said. “I thought I should have been there with a live
“I went over there for a trial when I was 16, still at school,” he explains.
“It came about from John Bleahen who sells horses that Ross Doyle buys for Richard.”
Hannon, responsible for igniting the careers of Ryan Moore, Tom Marquand, Hollie Doyle and many more, clearly liked what he saw and Ryan was soon on his way.
Riding racehorses was a natural progression for the 21-year- old.
Winners
His father David trains in Galway and he grew up among hopeful jockeys.
Like so many teenagers with stars in their eyes about becoming the next Frankie Dettori, Ryan was turning heads on the pony racing circuit. This was highlighted when riding seven winners in a day.
But he plays down his achievements as he refers to his close friend Jack Kennedy, last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning rider, as the king of the pony racing circuit.
“I would have loved to have been at Cheltenham that day he won on Minella Indo,” he remarks.
That never-to-be-forgotten first winner on a racecourse for Ryan was posted as a 16-year- old when partnering Solar Heat at Dundalk in December 2016.
To gain further experience, Ryan rocked up in Australia, where his uncle Tom rides, and was rewarded with seven winners.
They loved him and asked him to stay.
A broken collar bone and an appendicitis operation ruled him out of this year’s Royal Ascot and Derby but that has been the only bump in the road. Fol lowing a four- timer at Chepstow earlier in the month, Ryan recently had that intoxicating whiff of a first classic winner when partnering Mojo Star to finish second behind Hurricane Lane in the St Leger.
“So close, but so far,” reflects Ryan. “He’s going to be a lovely four-year- old. As for working with Joorab- chian, he adds: “I’m not r e a l ly int o football.
“It’s probably why we get on.”