LEOPARDSTOWN, August 6th, Group 3 Silver Flash Stakes, just inside the two-furlong marker and Gavin Ryan gives Shale a squeeze and asks her to pick up.

The Donnacha O’Brien-trained filly changes gears quickly and sails past the early pace-setter Finest. In behind, Shane Crosse has given Joseph O’Brien’s filly Pretty Gorgeous a kick and set about chasing down the leader. There is still over a length between them as they pass the furlong pole and, although Pretty Gorgeous runs all the way to the line, it never looks like she is going to catch Shale, who is punched out by her young rider.

There is a significance to the race that grows as the season develops. It is the first time that Shale and Pretty Gorgeous meet, but it won’t be the last. Two high-class juvenile fillies trained by the brothers O’Brien, who will spar three more times before the season is out and push each other higher.

And the riders. Also sparring partners in a thread that will run through the truncated year. They are just starting to settle into a duel for the apprentices’ championship that will run into the small hours of the season.

Shale’s Silver Flash Stakes win is a landmark victory for Gavin Ryan, a first blacktype win, a first group win. Ryan is still a 5lb-claiming apprentice jockey but, because the Silver Flash Stakes is a group race, he can’t utilise his claim. Even so, Donnacha O’Brien has no hesitation in putting him up, 5lb claim or no 5lb claim. The young trainer’s faith in his young rider is another thread that will run through the season.

The Curragh, August 22nd, Group 2 Debutante Stakes, Gavin Ryan goes for Shale on the run to the two-furlong marker. The ground is softer this time and Pretty Gorgeous is closer, and Shane Crosse asks his filly to cover the move. Crosse gives his filly a squeeze and she draws level with Shale on the run to the furlong marker. One crack of the whip and she lengthens, gallops on strongly through the final furlong and pulls away to beat her old adversary by two and a half lengths.

It is a second Group 2 win for Shane Crosse. His first was just two months earlier, in the Greenlands Stakes on Speak In Colours, when he was still a 3lb-claiming rider but, like Ryan in the Silver Flash Stakes, couldn’t utilise his claim in a group race. And, like his brother, Joseph O’Brien had no problem putting up his young rider. The parallels continue. Talent trumps weights and measures.

Parallels

The parallels between the two young riders have deep roots too. Both pony racing graduates, pony racing contemporaries in a golden era for pony racing riders. Both born with an innate talent.

From Moneyglass just outside Killenaule in County Tipperary, it came to the point at which Gavin Ryan had to choose between hurling and riding. He loved hurling but the allure of racing and riding was irresistible. He started off show jumping and eventing and pony racing. He started going into Edward O’Grady’s at weekends and he was apprenticed to Jim Bolger. At the end of his three-year gold seal apprenticeship with Jim Bolger, last year, he joined fledgling trainer Donnacha O’Brien.

Shane Crosse’s dad Matt, who rode over jumps in Britain and in America as well as in Ireland, used to be head lad at Tommy Stack’s, so young Shane used to go there at weekends and on school holidays. When his dad moved to Joseph O’Brien’s, Shane thought, wouldn’t it be brilliant if he could take out his apprenticeship with Joseph O’Brien? And now look, champion apprentice in 2018 and group winners everywhere.

This year’s apprentices’ championship ran deep into the season, if not quite to the final roll. Shane Crosse and Gavin Ryan had it between them from a long way out, and it see-sawed. Crosse led by one at the end of the Listowel Festival in September. Then Ryan went on a roll, went five clear as they raced into October. Crosse pulled one back at Leopardstown on October 17th but Ryan was relentless. A double at Dundalk on November 4th and a treble back there on November 6th put it out of reach, and Gavin Ryan was crowned 2020 champion apprentice.

A deserving winner, pushed all the way there by the 2018 champion, with their respective tallies taking them to sixth and eighth places respectively in the overall jockeys’ championship.

It has been some year for both riders. Big horses and big winners. Landmarks all over the place. Crossfirehurricane and Speak In Colours and Pretty Gorgeous and Thundering Nights for Crosse, Shale and Current Option and Edification and Saltonstall for Ryan. And Galway.

Gavin Ryan knew that he had good rides going into the Galway Festival, but you never would have thought that you could have five winners and walk out of there with the Leading Jockey’s title under your arm. He wanted to get to Galway with his 5lb claim still intact, and that was clever. A 5lb claim for a rider with his talent was some asset to have in Galway’s cauldron, where margins are tight and quarters are neither asked nor given.

The Rain King, Sirjack Thomas, Current Option, Centroid by a nose and Saltonstall by another nose, by a sliver, from Njord, after deliberations over the photo finish that lasted almost six minutes.

Just this week, Ryan’s efforts on Ado McGuinness’s horse were recognised wholly when he scooped the Ride of the Year Award at the HRI Awards. He also took the Emerging Talent Award at the same ceremony. It has been some year for him.

Tough moments

There were tough moments too during the season. Inevitably. Like the St Leger for Shane Crosse, when a pre-travel test for Covid-19 came back positive, despite the fact that he had no symptoms, and ruled him out of the final British classic of the year at Doncaster. He sat at home with housemate Mikey Sheehy, feeling as healthy as a clam, and watched as Tom Marquand rode Galileo Chrome to victory.

That was a tough one to take, a Group 1 victory that could have been his. A first Group 1 win. But that’s this business for you, disappointments are inevitable. Everybody faces them. The most important thing is how you deal with them, that’s the barometer, and Shane Crosse’s performance in that regard was impeccable.

He put his head down and worked hard. Two days after he returned, he rode Magnanimous to get home by a head in a nursery at Listowel. Two days after that, he rode Druid’s Altar to win his maiden.

Then, in early October, he got his Group 1 chance, back on Pretty Gorgeous in the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket. He kept it simple, went straight from his outside draw, towards the centre of the track, and settled his filly just behind the front rank. A gap opened up as they raced to the two-furlong marker, and he allowed his filly move into it. He just moved her forward as they raced into the Dip, hit the front on the run to the furlong marker, and rode her out to the line to get home by a half a length.

A first Group 1 win.

Another landmark.