When the Domeland breeding and racing stable decided to bring its training operation in-house just over a year ago, its bosses put their faith in rookie Sara Ryan – and Attractable showed why when winning the $3 million Big Dance at Randwick on Tuesday.
Ryan works out of Kulnura on the Central Coast in a training centre set up by Larry Pickering. She has had Attractable in work for more than eight months but was still able to get a peak performance out of him in the 1600m feature.
Ryan rides her own work and got the best out of the son of I Am Invincible in a long campaign over which he has continued to improve.
“This horse, he gives his heart – and that’s why I love him so much,” Ryan said. “I rode him yesterday and he tried to kill me, so I knew he was ready for today.
“He’s just one of those horses … he thinks he’s a comedian. He had a good buck, had a good play coming off the track, and that’s when I know he’s right. He thinks he is hilarious … I don’t.”
Attractable ($19) sat outside the speed and when jockey Regan Bayliss asked him to go at the top of the Randwick straight, he put a gap between himself and his rivals that they could not claw back. Topweight and $4.80 favourite Cepheus ran into second 1¼ lengths away, with Super Helpful ($19) another 1½ lengths back in third.
Sara Ryan and jockey Regan Bayliss after winning The Big Dance with Attractable.Credit: Janie Barrett
Preparation for this race started in March, and Attractable didn’t have a win in his first five runs. He broke through to win at Rosehill in June and has since added another three victories and nearly $2 million in prizemoney in his next five starts, including the Coffs Harbour Cup to get into the Big Dance.
“He just needed to get to a mile and get a bit of confidence, and he has just gone to another level,” Ryan said.
It had been a journey for Ryan in the past 12 months. She was initially only given a restricted training licence by Racing NSW but, after six months, it was converted to a full licence.
“When Domeland asked me to train for them, I was managing their spelling and pre-training. I thought, ‘You are absolutely crazy’,” Ryan said.
Regan Bayliss on Attractable wins The Big Dance.Credit: Getty
“I used to pre-train the horses before we sent them out to the trainers, so I worked with the other trainers Domeland have had: John O’Shea, Claire Cunningham, Peter Moody.
“I had a restricted licence for six months, where I could only have five horses in work and had to run in my colours, and they stuck by me. It was a relief when I got the full licence.”
Domeland’s general manager, King Cheng, said they have faith in Ryan, who now has 23 horses in work and is continuing to build her team.
“We went into Racing NSW with her and understood the rules, but we were prepared to wait because we had faith Sara was the right person,” Cheng said.
“You look at what she has done with this horse and you see why we brought everything in-house. She is a very good trainer and this is a great result.”
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