The result of the first race at Ipswich today … in which the Bryan and Daniel Guy trained duo of Niab and Eagle’s Forever fought out the finish down the home straight leaving the best of their rivals no less than six lengths in arrears, further emphasised just how well the Guy training partnership is travelling at the moment after, by their own admission, going through a relatively quiet period.
Here the co-trainers give some interesting insight into ebb and flow of their training fortunes, their training setup and how they invariable always come out on the other side of some demanding times well enough to get back into full stride with the help of their valuable clients.
“The stable did go through a quiet period a little while ago,” said Bryan Guy. “We were down about ten, fifteen horses in the yard and we generally had just fair horses. We were taking horses over the border, until Covid came in, to try and get them to win the weaker races because that is the sort of horses they were.
“We hadn’t forgotten how to train … it was just we went through that stage where we didn’t have enough quality horses racing for us.
“Then, with a stroke of luck, we’ve ended up with a lot of new horses from Orbis Bloodstock who asked us to train their horses up here in Queensland. We’ve got some very well-bred horses. Some horses that have cost a lot of money and some horses that look like they are going to be good horses … so that, in part, is one of the reasons why our results are picking up so well now.
I would obviously like it if some more horses came into the stable … new clients would be quite good … but I am very happy with what is going on with us and Orbis and, of course, also with our solid base of Hong Kong clients They have all been terrific to us,” concluded Bryan Guy.
“What a lot of people don’t see is the horses we have had come through the stable,” said Daniel Guy, taking up the story.
“About eighty percent of our client base is in Hong Kong. We have a lot of nice horses come through our stable that we work with but, unfortunately, we don’t get to race all of them … or get to race them all for too long.
“When they win, they go straight to Hong Kong. A good example of that was a horse called Solar Patch who was the favourite for the Derby last year or the year before, until he got hurt. He had one start for us … bolted in ..and then went to straight Hong Kong. We are winning trials and they are going to Hong Kong.
“So, there are horses like that who would have gone through their grades here and put us back on the map, local results-wise. People would have said… ah, they are getting winners instead of saying they are having a quiet time.
“But that is not a complaint. That is the nature of the beast. That is where our established client base is. We have fantastic Hong Kong clients. They are very good people. They provide us with a great number of horses … … and we are very grateful to have that relationship and their patronage.
“We have thirty-four in work. To have forty would be nice … and if we could end up topping up those numbers with Australian based clients, that would enable us to have the sort of balance which would allow us to keep doing the Hong Kong work as well as having the horses here to keep getting winners locally so that people could see us getting good results.”
Not that the Guy training partnership has been short of results in recent times.
Since September 12, the stable has saddled ten winners from 33 starters … an impressive strike rate of just over 30 percent, albeit in the lower classes, but all of the winners were pointing their respective careers in the right direction.
“Most came through the trials. They trailed well. Then they went to the races and they won … and some have gone on and progressed well from there,” said Daniel Guy.
Back to Bryan Guy for a rundown on some of those recent winners.
“Golden Eighty who won on debut in two-year-old race at Doomben two Saturdays ago is owned by one of our Hong Kong clients,” said Bryan Guy. “Those clients also own Vibrant City who, incidentally, was also a last start winner for us. They rung me and said can you find us a yearling. We’ve got x-amount of dollars. Then later they rang me back and said, we think we need to give you some more money … it was a good call to take.
“I went and I had a look at the Magic Millions sale and I picked this horse out. I had trained his half-sister and she ran a place in the Bracelet at the Gold Coast … a Listed race.
“Everything was right with him, so we ended up buying him. From day one he has just got better and better and better and he is showing me he is going to be a horse that is going to get over ground.
“Clearance Sale … an Orbis Bloodstock owned horse …is having his first prep and he raced up to Quality class in town last Saturday. Only two starts ago he won a Maiden, so it was a big, big step up. He’s had five starts for two wins and the furthest back he has finished is fourth.
“The horse that came up from Sydney, I Am Swerving … also an Orbis Bloodstock horse … goes quite nicely. We got him from the Hawkes stable and he won on debut for us.
“Danish Fortune, a winner last start, is owned by another of our Hong Kong clients.
“Eagles Forever is owned John Moore who is a long-time client. He has been with us about fifteen years. He keeps sending us horses.
“Pythia, who came from the Noel Mayfield-Smith stable, is another recent addition to the stable who won at his second start for us and Niab also won first-up recently and then has now won again at Ipswich,
*The full list of the nine Guy stable winners since September 12 reads:
Clearance Sale (x2), Danish Fortune, Eagles Forever, Golden Eighty, I Am Swerving, Niab (x2), Pythia and Vibrant City.
