NO CRACK SHOT AT ARC The STRIFE OF RYAN
Deadly virus left yard in lockdown..but now star sprinter Brando is proving perfect tonic
LUCKILY for Kevin Ryan, who saddles Brando in today’s Sprint Cup at Haydock, it’s not called the wheel of fortune for nothing.
It turns. Three months ago, Ryan’s training career – which has known many more ups than downs since it began in 1998 – was at crisis point.
The one-time jump jockey’s vet diagnosed equine herpes in one inmate at his Hambleton Lodge stables near Thirsk.
No sniggering at the back. The virus EHV-1 is potentially deadly and Ryan immediately contacted the BHA before putting the yard into lockdown.
With strict constraints on the movement of horses, Ryan was unable to send out runners at the height of the Flat season. But wages for his employees at the 120-horse stable still needed to be paid.
“The owners were amazing, and the staff were even more amazing,” reflects 50-year-old Co Tipperary Ryan, the winner of 47 National Hunt races during his days as a jockey.
“Of course it’s my livelihood, and it’s a sport that has been very good to me, but those are the cards you’re dealt and you have to get on with it.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t difficult at the time, but you’ve only to switch on the news to see people who are worse off than you.
“At the end of the day, it’s a sport – horses running round a field – so you have to keep things in perspective. At least we’re getting paid back for it now!”
The problems of the real world are no doubt easier to recognise now that his luck has improved – Ryan’s horses have been effervescent since Hambleton Lodge returned to business as usual at the end of June.
The fiveyear-old Brando has been an emblem of the trainer’s fortunes, breaking a blood vessel when last in the Duke Of York Stakes in mid-May before launching a resurgence that has seen him score at the highest level. The son of Pivotal, whose owner, Peter Tingey – the horse runs in the colours of partner Angie Bailey – owns a fleet of 240 taxis in Barnsley, was a 28-1 shot when running third to today’s rival Harry Angel in the July Cup at Newmarket. Last season’s Ayr Gold Cup winner then put up a personal best to lift the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest – Ryan’s seventh triumph in the top tier – at Deauville last month. “He ran a huge race in the July Cup and I knew he would improve for it – he’s a big, gross horse and I couldn’t get the horses away to work,” adds Ryan.
“We wanted to track Caravaggio, but he didn’t jump out so well, and that meant we were a length and a half further back than we could have been. But he finished the race off so well that it wasn’t a surprise to see him win in Deauville.
“It was a ballsy ride by Tom – you don’t often see a jockey take a pull between the two and the one in a Group 1 sprint – and it was great to see the owners get their reward after they turned down some very big money for him last year.”
Torrential rain has triggered market support for Brando, who could yet challenge Harry Angel at the head of the betting for the £260,000, six-furlong feature.
“I’ve been hearing how the weather is turning things in his favour,” says Ryan, “and of course he’s got form on soft ground, but then so has the favourite – he won a Group 2 on soft on his second start at two.
“But we always thought Brando was a very good horse. We’ve been careful to mind him – he’s a typical Pivotal, who gets better with age – and we think he’s still improving.”