While many Australians look to Europe to source horses, trainer Gerald Ryan and owner Damion Flower are about to try out the American market.
Since they first joined forces with 2003 Australian Derby winner Clangalang, Ryan and Flower have become big players at the yearling sales including this year’s Magic Millions where they bought the highest lot, a $1.6 million Snitzel colt.
Ryan and Flower will head to next month’s Saratoga sale in New York looking for a horse which can be developed into a stallion.
“Damion was a part-owner of Clangalang and after he won the Derby, he said he would buy me a colt to train,” Ryan said.
“That colt turned out to be Snitzel.
“The idea of going to America is to try to buy a horse and leave it there to race until it is a four-year-old.
“Then we hope to bring him here to race and hopefully make a stallion.
“I went to Kentucky in 2000 and really enjoyed it and have always wanted to go back.
“It’s good to learn about how they do things in other countries.”
Snitzel started favourite in the 2005 Golden Slipper but finished out of the money after having a chequered passage and being galloped on.
The following autumn he got his Group One win in the Oakleigh Plate and was retired to stud at the end of his three-year-old year.
“I would have loved to have taken him to America,” Ryan said.
“I think he would have gone well there.”
While he is known for his success with sprinters, and most recently those by Snitzel, Ryan said he did not have a set idea of the type of colt he and Flower might buy.
