RYAN'S SEASON TO SAVOUR

THURSDAY, July 25, 2024: THE proof is in the pudding!

Hawkesbury trainer Blake Ryan’s breakout season took got even better when Lady Extreme ($6.50) clinched an important city success at Canterbury yesterday.

It was his 13th winner of the 2023-24 racing year, more than doubling last season’s six winners.

And he has achieved this result with fewer overall starters.

“It’s been a terrific season; I couldn’t be more pleased,” Ryan, who now trains from the superb RacingNSW-owned facility adjoining Hawkesbury racecourse, said this morning.

“I had 99 runners last year, and Lady Extreme was my 91st runner yesterday.”

Fate often works in strange ways, and it certainly did with Ryan getting Lady Extreme to train.

He is mates with Luke Wilkinson, who bred the now four-year-old daughter of Extreme Choice (which he also bred) and sold her to Ciaron Maher Racing for $250,000 as a 2021 Magic Millions yearling at the Gold Coast.

“Luke kept a 10 per cent share in her, but she had issues and the syndicate decided not to continue with her,” Ryan explained.

“So Luke decided to buy her back as a breeding proposition, and paid $27,500 for her online through Inglis in March last year as an unraced three-year-old.

“Lady Extreme was in Sydney at the time and was actually bound for Victoria, and Luke called to ask if I could stable her for a few days until she was due to go.

“She arrived on the Friday and was due to head south on the Monday, and Luke rang back to see if I was interested in having a crack at training her before the float arrived to pick her up.

“I didn’t have a lot of horses at the time, and jumped at the opportunity.”

Ryan says Lady Extreme has to be managed carefully, but has never had a day’s lameness since joining his team.

The Canterbury victory was her second – she scored on debut at Gosford last December – from only five starts, and she has also been placed on two occasions.

Unluckily beaten when a close third against her own sex over 1100m at Hawkesbury at her previous start on July 11, Jay Ford got her home from Alvina’s Luck ($10) and Lonrioli ($11) in a tense finish to yesterday’s Benchmark 64 Handicap (1250m), also against her own sex.

“She’s a tough mare, and Luke is happy to keep racing her whilst ever I am happy with her,” Ryan said.

“At this stage she will race on in the new season, and deserves her chance to win a Saturday race in town in the coming weeks.”

Lady Extreme was Ryan’s first winner on a Sydney track this season, but he also scored with Kote in the $200,000 Thunder Thousand Benchmark 78 Handicap (900m) at the Gosford metropolitan stand-alone meeting held at Newcastle on May 11.

Impressive Wyong debut winner He’s In Like Flynn pulled up brilliantly from his victory last Saturday in a Provincial Maiden Plate (1000m).

“He could have gone around again the following day he came through the race so well,” Ryan said.

“The current plan is to go back to Wyong for a Midway Benchmark 64 Handicap (1000m) on Saturday week (August 4).”