Templemore-based horse trainer John Patrick Ryan is enjoying one of his most successful ever seasons, having saddled his first treble at Sligo at the end of September. That brought his tally of winners for the current campaign to 14, which is one more than he managed in 2015.
Also a dry-stock and sheep farmer, John has been around horses all of his life. His father bred the well-known sports stallions Mountain Heather and Glen Star, while his great granduncle Jim Kelly famously won the Irish Derby Stakes in 1911 with Shanballymore. John’s cousin John Kelly was full back on the Tipperary hurling team that won the All-Ireland in 1971, so the family’s sporting pedigree is without question.
Since obtaining his licence in the early 1990s, Ryan has become a leading national hunt trainer. At the time of writing, he had 14 winners for the season and was flying high in the national hunt trainers’ championship. He attributes his success to his in-depth knowledge of horses, the excellent team he has around him and the fact that his farm / stable boasts a one-and-a-half-mile point-to-point track.
“We’ve held point-to-point racing here since 1993,” he explains. Cooldine and Fundamentalist were two superb horses that began their racing career at the point to point races held on the track at Fairyhill. Cooldine won the 2009 Royal Sun Alliance at the Cheltenham Festival and fetched a record price for a four-year-old, while Fundamentalist also won several big races.
“It’s a top-class track which gives our horses an advantage when it comes to competing because they are basically training on a racecourse every day. I also use my cousin Tom Maher’s hill gallops in Toomevara for endurance training and to help keep the horses sharp”.
Jim Bergin, an osteopath from Kilkenny, plays a vital part in John’s team. “He keeps our stock moving freely and is a very important man in the whole operation. Another vital cog in the operation is the local equine veterinary surgeon Rob Norris, ensuring that the horses are kept at an optimum level of health and is available whenever horses require treatment.
“Horses are my life – my father and his father always had horses. This business is second nature to me. There is no greater thrill for me than training a winner. It’s what drives me on.
“Danny Mullins is our main jockey. He comes here every week and his feedback is invaluable. Thomas Brett and Dan Corbett are the other jockeys we use. My daughters Gillian and Deirdre and son Eoin are also involved in the day-to-day running of the yard and have a great way with the horses.”
The 55-year-old handler has about 35 horses in training, half of which are three or four year olds. Draycott Place, Kylecrue and Presenting Mahler are his most successful horses at the moment, while others are showing plenty of promise.
“We’ve had a great run this season and long may it continue. We have some lovely young horses, most of whom will go the point-to-point route. All the local people have been very kind – they love to see the horses running well. I wouldn’t have any big owners and would have bought a lot of my horses out of a field. We’d buy some at the sales as well. We don’t give big money for the horses, so that means we have to try harder to source what we have. When I go to the sales I look for character and physique, rather than focusing on the pedigree.”
John describes Draycott Place as a “very classy horse” with “oodles of talent”. “I think there is a real big day in him,” he said of the seven-year-old. Commenting on Kylecrue, he continued: “He has been in terrific form and has endless stamina. For a horse that stays so well, he is not slow and is as good over two-and-a-half-miles on soft ground as he is over three miles plus. He is probably a Grade 2 horse and is ultra-tough. He jumps and stays so well.” Presenting Mahler, meanwhile, is a six-year-old mare who usually runs her best races on soft ground.
Other talented horses currently in John’s stable are Who’s Cross, Willow Grange, Mic Milano, Our Maisie, Banquet Hill, Bitview Colin, Echo Lady, Father Jed, Kilcarry Bridge, Killdevil George, Kitty B and Kittyhawkkay.
The Tipperary trainer has had over 100 winners in his career. Some of his early successes came with the gelding Fairy Mist and the mare Fairyhill Run. He also enjoyed success with Glen Star and Foildubh. The latter gelding has won €250,000 in prize money before he had to be put down after fracturing a shoulder when falling during the Galway Plate last year. “Foildubh was a brilliant horse and we were very sorry to lose him,” John recalls.
John and his wife Marian have five children – Paddy, Gillian, Deirdre, Eoin and Isabelle. They have all inherited his passion for all things equestrian, whether it is show jumping, cross country or horse racing. His brother Paddy and JP both run busy farm enterprises in Upperchurch and Borrisoleigh respectively, with Paddy also being a well-known agricultural contractor in his area.
In conclusion, John says: “We have a nice bunch of horses and are well supported by good owners. 2016 has been our most successful year to date and we’re hoping that next year will be just as successful. Our goal is to produce as many winners as possible and to keep challenging the big boys.”
John Patrick Ryan
Fairyhill,
Templemore,
Co. Tipperary.
Telephone: +353 (0)504 35890
Mobile: +353 (0)87 2452741
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 9, November/December 2016
