Blake Ryan’s rapid rise in the breeze-up ranks

Written by Georgie Dennis

For many vendors at this year’s Inglis Ready2Race Sale, preparing and selling breeze-up horses is more of a side business, but that is not the case for Blake Ryan Racing.

Blake Ryan himself, the son of Rosehill trainer Gerald, has worked closely with his father and has built up his business to become one of the most highly regarded breeze-up vendors around. He was the leading vendor by aggregate at last year's Inglis Ready2Race Sale, selling 10 horses for a total of $906,000.

“Dad always had some clients that we were prepping horses for the breeze-ups that would be sold in other people’s drafts,” Ryan told TDN AusNZ. “We would just get them ready and educate them and it got to the stage where I wanted to do something for myself and that was a way for me to get into the market and try and make a name for myself.

“So I took over that with those clients and created Blake Ryan Racing.

“The first year I had four in my draft and the next year we had eight and last year we had 13 and this year it’s 20 so it’s grown exponentially every year. At first I just wanted to poke along and I was happy to have four (horses)."

In just his fourth year working under the Blake Ryan Racing banner, he has to knock back horses because he just doesn’t have the space for them.

“People just kept asking, ‘could you take one? could you take one?’, and I thought ‘if you want the business to grow, you’re not in a position to say no’ but it’s got to the stage this year where we’ve had to turn quite a few away just due to a lack of room.”

In his own right

Ryan prepares his horses out of his father’s Rosehill stable but if all goes to plan at this year’s sale, he hopes to secure his own space where he can have more horses and eventually become a trainer in his own right.

“I only operate through Inglis, just due to time constraints it’s hard to get to the Gold Coast.

“But if all goes well this year, hopefully we’ll get enough together to get our own place and I’ll look at getting my trainers license and going out on my own and then maybe there will be some more growth in that to do the Magic Millions as well.

“It works well having them at Rosehill because they mix into your system that you’ve got with your racehorses, so they get educated the same as the ones that are getting ready to go to the first set of trials or the Breeders' Plate.

“And it holds them in good stead because they get exposed to everything at a young age and by the time they get to the sales, they’ve had two or three preps and they’ve been through the tunnels and on the walkers and exposed to busy track life as well as spending plenty of time at the farm.”

According to Ryan, time and patience is the key to getting his breeze-up horses right.

When they’re purchased as yearlings they immediately spend six weeks in the paddock before being broken in and only come into work briefly before having another break.

“They have two weeks of work and come into Rosehill and they’ll be there for two to three weeks and then go back out for a month to five weeks and then do it all over again.

“The first time in is basically just for them to get to know the place and have a canter around. They might go a furlong and roll up a bit of half pace before they go back out.

“Then we get more serious this prep. They generally have to have started work by August 1 to get ready to breeze-up on September 18.”

Plenty left in the tank

He also doesn’t have them reach their top speed until breeze-up day, leaving plenty left in the tank for when they go into full training.

“Everything is in hand, on the bridle until they get to breeze-up day because you want them to go there and do things right and when you sell them, you also want them to still be able to improve when they get to their trainers,” Ryan said.

“I think buyers are seeing that and other clients are seeing that and I think that’s why we’ve had a couple of good results in the ring and people are wanting to send us horses. And while that’s happening, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”

As for buying his yearlings, Ryan just wants to buy horses that he likes, however he said having variety in a draft is crucial.

“This year we’ve got 20 in the draft and they’re by 19 different stallions and we’ve had that every year,” he said. “I try to have horses for everyone.

“It’s hard enough to sell a horse against another horse in the same sale by the same stallion let alone one in the same draft. You’d be cutting your nose off to spite your face, so we’ve got two Star Turns and the rest are all by different stallions and they’re a good mix.

“There’s some horses there that I think will need a bit of time and then we’ve got horses like the Deep Field x Sugar Bay who is a little jet and I think will go before Christmas.

“You try and have a bit of everything at different budgets, different stallions and different styles of horses.”

The draft

Ryan will present a 20-horse draft at this year’s Ready2Race Sale and he named a few by young sires as his standouts.

“The Shalaa is shaping up really well. He’s out of a sister to Zakava who needs no explanation. She’s had four to the races for four winners.

“Shalaa has started his career really well in the northern hemisphere and this is a really athletic and great moving horse who’s quite forward and doing everything really well.

“We also got a lovely Holler colt out of Melbourne Premier. He’s big and scopey and a lovely rangy type.

“He’s showing a bit and he’d be a winter 2-year-old but he’s going to end up a great solid horse and he’s a great moving horse.

“And the American Pharoah colt out of a Not A Single Doubt mare. He’s got bit of both sides - he’s sharp but he’s really strong. Strong as an ox he is.

“There’s a good mix and a few nice ones there so hopefully people agree with me.”

As for how this year’s market will play out, Ryan said transparency between vendors and buyers will be the key to getting good results.

“It’s up to us vendors to provide as much transparency and as much information online as we can,” he said.

“Whether that be through videos, different photos - not just your standard side-on photo, we’re going to have to take their headshots and the front on and the rear shots - and provide the height and weight of the horses. Just provide as much as we can to the buyer so they can make as informed decision as they possibly can and be confident to click the button and bid.

“At this stage, I think I’m hoping more than predicting, but I’m hoping that if we do all of that then the buyers will be there for us.”