Guy was recently handed an offer too good to refuse for his stables on the Gold Coast and decided it was time to hang up the boots.
"My place here, they came in and offered us good money for it. I decided it was time to pull up stumps and that was it. I had a talk to my family and I thought it’s a good time, considering I am only 67, to have a break and do the things that I want to do," he said.
Guy grew up in horse stables and his official role began when he was 13, when he was licensed to ride trackwork for his own father, Ray, helping out with smart horses like multiple stakes winner Sovereign Slipper.
Tommy Berry and Bryan Guy | Image courtesy of Sportpix
"It was a good learning curve put it that way," he said. "I was in and around horses all my life."
Guy reflects on his father's death in 1992 and the whirlwind that saw him take over the family operation.
"The night he passed away, there were 60 horses, they had to work the next morning," he said. "I said to Max, 'What are we going to do? We can't just leave these horses in the boxes all weekend?' So we took the 60 horses to the track and we worked them. That was a tough morning," he said.
Within five days, Bryan was licensed to train, and went about running what had been his father's business with the blessing of his uncle, Max, who had been Ray Guy's right-hand man.
Bryan Guy's first Group 1 winner was already in the stable when he took over, All Our Mob (What A Guest {Ire}), who would win the 1994 G1 Stradbroke H.
"He taught me a lot that horse. He was such a kind horse, a lovely horse. His nickname was Mobster and he was a very kind horse," he said.
"He (All Our Mob) taught me a lot that horse. He was such a kind horse, a lovely horse. His nickname was Mobster and he was a very kind horse." - Bryan Guy
"He was my first runner on the following Saturday (after his father passed away), and he bolted in at Rosehill, which was very pleasing."
The day of that Stradbroke win in 1994 still very much sticks in the mind of Guy.
"It was a big day, I could tell you. My wife, had appendicitis and had her appendix out on the Friday. I had the two kids at home and cooked some breakfast for them. I jumped on a plane to Brisbane and the air hostess spilled a cup of coffee over me," he said.
"That night, it was a night you’d just remember forever."
Not long after that, All Our Mob left the stable after his owner passed away.
Secret Savings beating All Our Mob and Ravarda in the 1997 G1 Doncaster H. | Image courtesy of Sportpix
"When he went it was very heartbreaking, but it was either we give up then or we kept going," he said.
Another star that Guy trained in these early days was Ravarda, who was by a sire that Ray Guy had trained and Bryan had looked after, Rave Report.
Bryan had picked him out as a yearling for $10,000 and while he couldn't syndicate him, the colt quickly repaid him, winning the Listed Breeders' Plate at his first start. Later in his 2-year-old season, he would win the G1 Castlemaine S. at Eagle Farm, giving Guy his second Group 1 winner.
"He was a tough horse. He was really tough. I was probably too hard on him," he said.
At the end of his career, Ravarda's name was put up on the front gate of Guy's stables, a measure of the regard he was held in.
"He was a great horse to us. We owned five-sixths of him and when he finished racing, he had earned over $1 million in prizemoney," he said.
"He (Ravarda) was a great horse to us. We owned five-sixths of him and when he finished racing, he had earned over $1 million in prizemoney." - Bryan Guy
Guy, who would also train a G1 Queensland Derby winner, Eagle Way (More Than Ready {USA}), shares his insights on buying yearlings, and looking for gems among the catalogue.
He also speaks about the importance of the relationship with owners, working with some of the same people who had horses with his father in the 1970s. The key, he says, is integrity.
"Be honest with your clients. They come to you to train for them and all you have to do is be honest and courteous and try and be a friend and try and work on the business relationship," he said.
