John Ryan paid tribute to his father Mick, who passed away last week aged 80, and said the late Newmarket coach would be delighted his son was racing in Bahrain at the time of his death.
Mick Ryan, who has coached over 700 winners, including Goffs’ Irish One Thousand Guineas (G1) heroine in 1984 Katies died at West Suffolk Hospital at Bury St Edmunds on January 27.
Ryan returned from a race trip to the Middle East on January 30, where he had a runner run in a race listed the day after his father passed away.
He said: “Before leaving for Bahrain last week, I was very worried because Dad was very poor, but he said, ‘You just do your job, I’ll see you when you come back. If I die. then you’. I’ll still die when you come back!’ People from that era are really a different breed.”
Ryan, who followed in his father’s footsteps at Cadland House Stables in 2005, added: “He had sepsis and complications but they did their best for him. He didn’t miss too much in the show. Life. He didn’t leave. Too many stones have not been turned. It was important to him when my son Jack was born because he always wanted a grandson. The name continues. .”
Mick Ryan
Ryan has spent most of the past few days replying to texts or receiving phone calls from his father’s friends and associates, many of whom don’t even know his face.
He said: “I’ve had a lot of messages about him. People like Mick Channon. Mick comes into the game like he’s playing football. people in that are many people that we don’t know, from boys to the owner, the coach, and everyone else he’s worked with.”
As well as the texts, Ryan was reminded of some of the funniest stories about his dad. He said: “I am talking to Robert Nobbs, the manager of the Heath Court hotel, where my father used to spend a lot of time at the bar and where he used to host.
“When Robert was just starting work one evening when Dad was entertaining a group of Irish boys in a restaurant. It was midnight and everyone had gone to bed at his party and Robert wanted to call that. It was a night. Finally, he put two bottles of Johnny Walker Black on the table and a glass of water and said good night. When he came back the next morning to start breakfast, they were still there!”
There is also another story involving a horse, as Ryan tells it: “Some boys from Ireland owned a horse in the yard called Fort Fox. He was a 17-year-old chaser, 2 hands I think he won the Irish Gold Cup.
“The whole group came in for a weekend but didn’t make it to the field on Saturday because they got there late and just stayed at the bar in Heath Court. Dad and the group were still going strong on Sunday morning when they were told. was to go around the yard so I ended up walking the horse to the hotel I actually walked the horse into the bar Someone took a photo of a horse standing at the bar being given carrots on a silver platter .”
