When I put it to John Patrick Ryan that his horses have a reputation for being hardy frontrunners that are notoriously difficult to get past, he replied, with only a hint of humour: “They are probably taking after me, so. Because, in life, as in sport, I play hard but fair and I wouldn’t give an inch to anyone.

“In anything, hurling or any equestrian sport, never looked for an inch and never gave an inch. I played a bit of hurling as a youngster but I didn’t have much time for it as I got older. Look, racing is a tough, hard business, so you have to be tough.”

There is something in that; the old saying that animals tend to take on their owner’s - in this case trainer’s - traits.

But it is not just John’s character that oozes competitiveness, it is something that has come down through the generations and is carrying on too. He explains: “We are steeped in racing, probably the oldest racing family in the Templemore area.

“My great grandfather, John Kelly, owned and trained the 1911 Irish Derby winner Shanballymore. Our family has been in this area for hundreds of years.

“We are known as the Ryan Gerrys; we have been involved in farming, horses, country life for many generations. My father, John, was a great man with sport horses; he had great stallions down through the years such as Mountain Heather and Glen Star. I got my love of horses from him.

“My uncle Gerry trained horses, my cousin Stephen Ryan trained. My cousin Michael Meagher was Trevor Hemmings’ racing manager. His brother Tom is a good friend and I have trained lots of good horses for him too. We often use Tom’s lovely five-furlong hill gallop, particularly during winter.

“When my daughters, [Deirdre, Gillian and Isabelle] were involved in hunt chase competitions with the Tipperary team, they won 18 out of a possible 19 competitions in Ireland. Many years ago I started training racehorses for myself and then Gillian started race riding so it went from there.”

Plenty of big-race wins have followed, notably Foildubh (“The first real good horse I had”) who won the 2013 Grade 2 Norman’s Grove Chase at Fairyhouse and the 2012 €100,000 Guinness Handicap Chase at the Punchestown Festival. “Between him, Draycott Place and Kylecrue, they won over €1 million in prize money, real good horses. Sometimes you get a nice collection of horses at once and they were part of a great bunch we had close together,” he recalls.

Good facilities

Having a 150-acre farm with several grass gallops, including two point-to-point circuits, helps the job but you still have to know what you are doing to get it right. Surrounded by his supportive family and a core of local people, John gets it right plenty, the number of winners in the last 20 years tells that story.

He elaborates: “We just have great scope in this place to train horses. We ran point-to-points on this farm for over 20 years but now we use the courses ourselves. We also have a wide two-and-a-half furlong sand gallop, a ploughed gallop and two straight six-furlong gallops.

“We train our horses to be hard and fit. We lead busy lives but busy is good, you are sharp and you don’t miss anything. We enjoy what we do, we work hard, every morning is early. The routine is 6.30am in the yard and I still have chores even to do yet [at 7pm]. But it is a wonderful game, racing.

“Life is what you want to make of it. Some people like to play golf, go on holidays. I have never really been on holidays, we are always either farming or racing. Racing takes up a huge part of our lives, driving to and from racing, preparing the horses, it takes up a lot of your time.”

Supportive family

John’s wife Marian is a schoolteacher in Templemore. She has racing connections in her family too, she is related to the Bowe family, of Limestone Lad fame.

Eldest son Paddy is an engineer who isn’t involved in racing, while Eoin used to ride out a lot but runs the farm side of the business now. Daughters Gillian and Isabelle are the most involved in racing, though they lead busy lives in the outside world too. Isabelle is studying pharmacy in Coleraine but is involved as much as possible while Gillian is a pharmaceutical engineer. Deirdre bred and owns the current winning mare Ad Caelum and helps out too when she can.

John explains: “Isabelle is always well up on the best turned out list. She was second only to the Gordon Elliott yard last year. Gillian is a huge part of what I do. She has a massive interest in racing. She got married this year to John, a dairy farmer in Causeway, Co Kerry but she works in Limerick and keeps her mares on their farm in Pallaskenry. We talk on the phone a lot. She comes back every weekend and rides work and we chat about everything that happened during the week. She has a very important job herself but is still very involved with the training.”

He continues: “The whole thing about training racehorses is to have healthy horses and get a good team of people around you and we have that here. When you are feeding, make sure to use simple but high quality additives. Jim Magill makes a cold pressed linseed oil, which I believe in, it is very good for horses’ health. We would leave no stone unturned to get the best out of horses.

“There is no room for mistakes, we make our own good hay and haylage plus use the best of bedding. Our turnout paddocks are a big part of what we do and we turn out horses as much as we can. My motto is to give them every chance you can possibly give them.”

Healthy horses

Ryan has a clear focus on training and is very conscious that lapses in biosecurity measures in a yard can have a detrimental effect on a season.

“I buy horses as three- or four-year-olds, I don’t keep young stock. Gillian has a few broodmares but I have never been into that myself. I never liked mares and foals around racehorses. Any bit of stress in a foal, it has a dirty nose and the next thing you know it is in the yard. You have to keep them separately, that mix doesn’t work.”

He further expands on his buying policy: “I always like to buy horses with pedigrees, I can compromise on size and other things but I like a horse with a good pedigree. I like to see good winners on the page, even if you have to go back to the third dam. It is like drilling for oil, at least you know that oil was found before there!

“Some pedigrees can go light but horses in it could have been unlucky and got injuries and things didn’t go right, so that can happen.

“That is the most difficult part of training National Hunt horses, keeping them sound. I am always looking for graded horses, horses that can get to 150 and if you have one rated that high you have a chance to win a Grade 1, that is the level we want to achieve.”

Though plenty of the horses run in John’s own colours, he has no shortage of outside support too.

“We have lots of nice owners, some special people. There is a danger when you start mentioning them you could leave somebody out and offend them but they know who they are and what they mean to us. For the last five or six years we are basically a top 10 yard and that doesn’t happen by itself. We had a great year in 2021/’22 with 39 winners.

“We had 23 last year but we will be aiming for better than that this season. We have made a good start with four winners already. If you don’t strive to do better than what you have already done then you won’t go forward, in anything. You have to have ambition in life no matter what stage you are at. Every year we set out to do better than the previous one.”

To that end, John feels that he has a nice collection of young horses at the moment: “Eye Of The Tiger is a nice mare that hasn’t run yet; another one, Don Bosco, he is close to running. They are proper young horses and should win first time out. We also have a really lovely horse by Jet Away who isn’t named yet. They are exciting and keep you getting up early in the morning. We also have a nice mare that ran in the UK, Crystabel, she was beaten a head in her first bumper over there. She is owned in partnership by Gillian, Jeff Bruce and Mark Fleming. They had good fortune before with Wait And See, and hopefully they will have more luck with this one.”

There is no shortage of reliable, more established performers. “Donacheady Gale is an 11-year-old now and, but for an injury early in his career, would have been a real good horse. He had a lot of leg trouble but is still a good horse and won a 50 grand chase for his owner John Devine at Listowel last year. If we get a good run with him I could see him winning one of those ‘Nationals’ this year [entered in McHale Mayo National on Monday]. Another horse, Gaelic Arc, could have a very good summer campaign. Grange Walk is a very important horse, he won again recently. His owner, Edward Gleeson, is a very special man.

“I had a good horse in partnership with Tommy James, a friend from Wexford, called Lucid Dreams, but he broke a leg at Leopardstown last winter. He was a superstar, he had only been in training for two years and won loads of races.

“Tommy has a few other horses showing promise at home and hopefully they will be lucky for him.

“Saint Peregrine is a horse that everything went wrong with at the start but he could be a very nice horse going forward [runner-up at Sligo last time]. He is owned in partnership with Walter O’Connor and his mother. They also have My Gaffer, who won at Killarney recently, and Tom Sarah Evelyn who was second in a maiden hurdle on his latest run.

“Kate Knows Best could be a nice mare going forward over fences, she won at Sligo recently and is a real improver. She was a raw filly and was very lightly trained as a young horse and we eased off her last year but has benefitted from that time now.

“Paddy and Anna Everard purchased Kate Knows Best and Flidais as filly foals. The Everards are very close friends and they love following their horses.

“Seamus Casey, a breeder and a close friend, always has something with us and often helps out. And Declan Donohoe, owner and breeder of The Dara Man, who has won four races including a Grade B chase at Killarney.”

There is a special mention for Fr Shay Casey, who is hugely involved in the Bitview Partnership with Gillian. A real character, Fr Shay has had success with The Little Yank, Ferdia and Killashee.

Leading jockeys

Though basically a family-run enterprise, a number of, mostly, local people come in every day to help out and, importantly, a cohort of leading jockeys regularly lend their expertise to the string: “Danny Mullins, Sean O’Keeffe and Daniel King come in once a week to ride work and they are a hugely important part of what I do,” John reasons. “John Aherne is another young jockey who rides work here too and I hope he will do well.”

Vets Rob Norris and Mark Slevin play important roles, as does farrier David Walsh.

“I also want to mention Richard Shaw, Martin Murphy, Emma Larkin and Paddy Ryan in the racing department of HRI because they are a great help to me about entries and declarations. I deal with them every day and they don’t get the recognition they should.”

Though as competitive a man as he is, John has an innate sense of appreciation for others’ achievements and hardships so, before finishing our conversation, he was keen to publicly pay tribute to the recently retired local hero Rachael Blackmore and the late Michael O’Sullivan:

“Rachel was just a superstar. What she has done for racing in the last number of years is just amazing. She rode a Killarney National winner for me.

“My daughter Gillian is around the same age as her and has great respect for Rachael. She will be brilliant at what she does in the future too, I know that.

“At the end of the day, this game is a lot of hard work but we enjoy the good days but, by God, there are a lot of lean days too. But then, the death of Michael O’Sullivan puts everything into perspective, It was a terrible tragedy and he is still fresh in everyone’s mind.”