THIS evening Goal Oriented will bid to give Bob Baffert a ninth training success in the $2 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

The unbeaten son of Not This Time is co-owned by Tom Ryan of SF Racing, who will be hoping for yet another success to add to those other big ones they have accumulated over the past number of years.

The Triple Crown is a trio of races that this Irishman knows inside out. As managing partner of SF Bloodstock and racing manager for SF Racing, his association with the likes of Authentic, National Treasure, Super Saver and Justify has made him one of the biggest names in racehorse syndication in the USA in recent times. It was the very early days of SF Racing when Super Saver won the Kentucky Derby for them in 2010. They won the same race in 2020 with Authentic.

In 2021 Ryan (48) secured National Treasure, winner of the Preakness Stakes in 2023. SF Racing were also partners in Justify, who in 2018 became only the 13th horse in history to win all three races – Derby, Preakness, Belmont – in the US Triple Crown.

With their highly-rated colt Rodriguez missing the 2025 Derby through injury and now bypassing the Preakness to prepare for the Belmont, SF Racing and the co-owners of Goal Oriented will be eagerly waiting to see if their $425,000 yearling purchase can land the second leg – on his third ever start – in this lucrative series.

Wexford sheep farm

How a farmer’s son from the small village of Ballindaggin in Co Wexford came to be involved in some of the most successful racehorses and stallions of all time is quite a story.

“I grew up on a large sheep farm at the foot of Mount Leinster. My godfather Eugene Ryan always had a few thoroughbreds, including the 1976 St James’s Palace Stakes winner, Don. He got me interested when he gave me my first horse.”

Ryan later attended boarding school at St Peter’s College in Wexford, where he befriended John and Philip Hore from Mount Eaton Stud. “They opened me up to a whole new world of thoroughbreds. I went from reading the Irish Farmers’ Journal every week to reading The Irish Field.

“I had decided at a very early stage that I wanted a career in horses. I loved everything about them and wanted to know everything about them. I read as much as I could. I was inspired by Vincent O’Brien, the evolution of Coolmore, and Jim Bolger. I wasn’t smart enough to go to UCD after my Leaving Certificate, so I went to Kildalton College to do equine studies.”

From there Ryan did a stint with Paddy Byrne at Park House Stud and then Willie Mullins. “Willie took me on as the tractor man, but I also got to ride the bigger horses.

“I went around the gallops thinking I was Lester (Piggott) - good and stylish - I was none of those. I was 6ft 2in, and eight and a half stone.”

With life as a jockey not on the cards, Ryan successfully applied for the breeding management course at the Irish National Stud. “My mother’s brother, Fr Jim Nolan, always kept some National Hunt mares and he would have been the main driver behind me going to the INS.”

This set him up well for a career in the industry. “It is a great course, especially for people like myself who come from a farming background and fall in love with horses but don’t have the practical experience with stallions, foaling mares, or yearling management. Completing it gave me such confidence to leave Ireland.”

Tom Ryan’s first ever plane trip was to Doncaster while working for Clody Norton in Wexford. “The next time I went on plane was when I went to work in Australia at the end of 1996.

“Mike Becker had a stallion station in Melbourne. I was thrown in at the deep end but I was proud that I was able to work with some great stallions there. I also did a season in Japan at Shadai at the time of Sunday Silence and Deep Impact.”

Ryan came back to Coolmore in Fethard for a while, and from there he relocated to their American operation at Ashford Stud. “I found that there’s no ceiling in the States. It bases you on productivity and it really set me up for someone with an appetite for work, so that is where I settled in 1999.”

Bloodstock agent

Ryan has now made Kentucky home and is an American citizen. He is married to Michigan-born Katie, a small animal veterinary surgeon. They have two sons, Nolan (8) and Callan (6).

In Lexington Ryan had his own barn of stallions, including Woodman, who would ultimately change the career path of his handler. “One day he bit off my thumb. It was stitched back on, but I lost my desire to jump into a stallion stall again and that was it.”

Nicknamed ‘Tom Thumb’, Ryan spent some time in limbo, but credits bloodstock agent Demi O’Byrne for helping him ‘get back on the bike’. “Demi came over every few weeks to see horses. He needed someone to bring him around and it turned into a great opportunity.”

Ryan was later introduced to another agent, Peter Bradley, and worked with him for a few years. “I learnt a lot about contracts and how to value shares. Most people can understand a deal in a broad sense, but valuing horses is an art.”

Ryan says that between 2004 and 2006 there was a massive amount of trade between the USA, Europe and Japan. “It was an interesting period. You’d watch the form on a Friday night and be ready on the Saturday night to buy the half-sister or whatever. It never felt like work.”

“One mare we traded in 2005 was Green Room. We bought her as an unraced three-year-old for 20,000gns at Tattersalls. We brought her to the States and sold her again at Keeneland in early 2006 for $240,000. She was carrying a foal to Speightstown, the result being Lord Shanakill. We also had shares in Speightstown who sadly died last year.”

Speightstown is the sire of Prince Of Monaco, a $950,000 yearling purchase by SF Racing who won a Grade 1 as a two-year-old. He is now retired to stud for 2025.

Owned by Gillian and Vimal Khosla of Templeton Railton Farms, Green Room went on to produce another Group 1 heroine in Together Forever, who is the dam of the 2024 Epsom Derby winner City Of Troy (by Justify).

Almost bankrupt

Ryan made the decision to go out on his own in 2006, naming the business Cherokee Equine. “All was fine until 2008. I was involved in hundreds of horses and close to bankruptcy when I was introduced to US-based Australian Gavin Murphy. He was in the early stages of setting up SF Bloodstock (for the Soros Family) and asked me to come on board.

“It was a very fortuitous opportunity at the time for me. It was right at the peak of the global financial crash where everything got a little bit harder. The luxury dollar was less available than it had been in the decade leading up to that, and I probably felt a little bit more vulnerable as a stand-alone trader. Having the backing of SF, rather than the weight of enormous personal debt, was very attractive and it opened doors that I otherwise couldn’t have approached.”

“For 16 years Gavin has been our fearless leader and a great friend. He is also one of the people I would have to give an extraordinary amount of credit to for his leadership and loyalty. We have been very fortunate to have played a significant role in the careers of several elite stallions across the globe such as Lope De Vega, Speightstown, Medaglia D’Oro, Quality Road, Curlin, Tapit and Kitten’s Joy. We had a solid position in Wootton Bassett very early on before he transferred to Coolmore.” SF Bloodstock were also co-owners of his son Almanzor, the champion three-year-old colt of 2016, when he stood in France.

Derby runners

One day in 2009 Ryan received a surprise call from Murphy. “He said ‘we need to get a horse to run in the Derby next year’. We tried to buy American Lion, but owners WinStar Farm had put a savage price on him. Instead, we bought 25% shares in him, as well as in Rule and Super Saver, who went on to win the Derby.”

Their second Derby success – and Triple Crown – came with Justify. He had been picked up as a yearling at Keeneland in 2016 for $500,000 by a syndicate that included the China Horse Club, WinStar Farm and SF Bloodstock. “We have since sold our shares in Justify but we have retained lifetime breeding rights,” Ryan commented.

Standing at Ashford Stud this season for $250,000, Justify is also sire of last year’s Derby winner City Of Troy and recent Newmarket 2000 Guineas winner, Ruling Court.

Just as Henry Field was getting Newgate Stud up and running in Australia, the trio of Field, Ryan and Murphy teamed up and decided to syndicate some more racehorses in the US.

“That was when I approached Bob Baffert. I said, ‘If I can raise $10 million to buy 20 colts, will you train them?’

“Bob came to the sales to inspect yearlings in 2018. We raised $8 million and bought 23 colts. The 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic was among them, as were fellow Grade 1 winners Charlatan and Eight Rings.”

Henry Field is now a business partner and very much part of the success story. “We modelled our partnership off one we have in Australia, run by Henry. We raise a pool of capital each year with the aim of buying 20-25 well-bred colts to race at the highest level of US racing, specifically on the dirt. “We’re targeting the very best dirt races for colts - the Breeders’ Cup, Triple Crown, and big Grade 1s for older horses too. We’re trying to produce stallions.

“It’s a tough business so I’d say we’re lucky to have seen the highs we have, but we’ve also put in the work and invested the time and money and seen our fair share of lows too.

“We work closely with Donato Lanni on the selection of our colts, with Bob Baffert making the final call. He’s going to train them after all. Donato is a hugely talented judge of a horse and is connected to and respected by all our partners.”

Bob Baffert

Tom Ryan’s admiration of Bob Baffert goes back a long way. “I was a fan of his long before I ever set foot in America. After Justify won the Triple Crown under Bob’s guidance I was positive we needed to have as many horses as possible in training with him. He’s not only a brilliant trainer but he’s also an extraordinary horseman. He’s a brilliant judge of horse flesh and he surrounds himself with outstanding people.

“Basically every yearling we buy is bought with Donato and Bob’s guidance and are all targeted to go into training with him. He has trained horses to win 18 or 20 Grade 1s for us, along with divisional champions National Treasure and Citizen Bull.”

“There is no other person in the world that has taught me more about the physiology and psychology of a horse. He’s a master with animals and people alike.”

Commenting on the controversy that saw Baffert’s 2021 Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit disqualified after failing a post-race drug test, Ryan said: “The US has previously received a bad rap on the topic of drugs in our sport maybe because we have high levels of transparency regarding our testing, the publishing of results, and we have testing systems capable of detecting very minute levels of both banned and controlled (therapeutic) substances.

“There is no secret as to how we felt about Bob. Never for one second did we believe he was a cheat. We are deeply involved in his outfit and we were always going to send horses to him.”

“Bob is the face of racing. He’s a good human, and an incredible judge of a horse. Without him we wouldn’t have had Justify. He’s a big part of our past, and a bigger part of our future.”

With SF Bloodstock now spread across several continents, Tom Ryan recalls the deal to secure one of the world’s leading sires, Lope De Vega. “Philip Hore introduced me to John O’Connor of Ballylinch Stud and we hit it off immediately. After a quick trip to Chantilly to Mr Head’s yard we made what would become one of the best acquisitions of our lifetimes. I will say I was very fortunate to have John’s counsel on that transaction, and he has managed that stallion impeccably for the last 14 years.

They have bought and sold thousands of mares over the years. Their current band numbers some 150, the majority of which are kept in Kentucky and Australia. Another two which are in foal to Lope De Vega are at Baroda Stud.

SF Bloodstock bought into Lope De Vega’s stallion son Phoenix Of Spain while he was still in training. “That came about through Matt Houldsworth and also Cathal Beale at the Irish National Stud. We are always looking for good stallions and now own a 20% share in him. I was delighted to see Atsila winning at the Curragh recently. He needs her to get him going.”

Wheel and deal

In horses there are good deals, and bads deals, and ones that got away. “Like the 2025 Derby runner-up Journalism. We could have bought him.

“We’ve had many others that didn’t work out. It’s hard to disguise the bad ones. You can breed all the good mares you like to them, and they won’t be good.

“It’s equally as hard to disguise the good ones, they can come from very humble beginnings. Wootton Bassett is a great example with only 36 foals in his first crop and yet he manged to produce Almanzor.”

Looking ahead to the next few weeks and months, SF Racing have plenty to be excited about. “We have a lovely crop of three-year-olds this year. Goal Oriented will go to the Preakness this weekend. Rodriguez will go to the Belmont in three weeks’ time. We have the champion two-year-old Citizen Bull to target some Grade 1s later in the summer and there are also exciting colts like Privman and Madakat Road.

“We’ve just brought some of our two-year-olds to California, with 10 out there now. Hopefully there’s some exciting young horses in that group also. On the filly front we have one by Quality Road with Brendan Walsh that Donato bought for us called Clicquot. She looks like she has a lot of upside,” he concluded.

From Wexford to the winner’s circles for America’s top races, Tom Ryan has helped build a bloodstock empire grounded in instinct, resilience, and global vision. The next chapter may be just getting started.