MICHAEL Ryan has owned winners all over the world, from St Moritz to America, with Newmarket, Longchamp and the Curragh in between.

Along the way, a lusty rendition of Dungarvan My Hometown by a large group of supporters has followed, whether the stuffier types liked it or not.

The notion to breed commercially developed in time and Al Eile Stud is run by Pat Connell along with Ryan’s son Micheál.

Selling subsequent Group 2 winner Ol’ Man River for €2.85m as a yearling in 2013 almost blew their minds but the landmark was celebrated the same way as the finest days of his dam Finsceal Beo, and Al Eile.

“Were you able to stand up?” Ryan Snr is asked, with reference to the likely loss of power the inquisitor imagines might follow such a momentous event.

“I don’t know about four hours later,” comes the instant reply.

This is what is at the core of it all for the building developer who spends his week in Dublin overseeing a variety of projects his company, Pivotal Construction are completing and the new ones that must always be pursued.

Yet he travels back to west Waterford for the weekend, to keep an eye on what is going on at the stud in Kilgobnet and catch up with everyone at home.

“We have always had a good time,” says a broadly-grinning Ryan. “That’s why we got into it. We’ve been very lucky to win and sing Dungarvan My Hometown in Newmarket, Longchamp and the Curragh. That’s what it’s all about.”

The Ryans return to Longchamp every year and have a grá for Aintree too. Finsceal Beo did the 1000 Guineas double when trained by Jim Bolger, having stamped her promise by winning the Prix Marcel Boussac the previous October. Al Eile was closer to home, with John Queally, and won 12 races, including three Aintree Hurdles and a November Handicap.

“He won four times at Aintree and he loved it there. He loved a flat track. He didn’t mind going up a hill but he couldn’t come down a hill. He had shoulder trouble from the time he was a two-year-old and that was the problem.

“I think Paris might have been the highlight of them all, the Marcel Boussac as a two-year-old. She was after being beaten by a National Hunt horse in a nursery below in Tralee! Then to be going for a Group 1; I didn’t expect anything. God Almighty! And then she broke the track record.

“The first day Al Eile won, my business partner, the late John Burke and all the girls in the office were over. We had a right scourge of it before the race and we certainly enjoyed it. We had some great days.”

The Guineas in Newmarket to see Finsceal Beo was Micheál’s first pilgrimage.

“He was too young for the partying,” says his father with a laugh.

“I loved it by then,” says Micheál. “We were always racing. I was point-to-pointing every Sunday. It was a great way of life.”

If Micheál had an obvious pathway, that wasn’t the case with Michael.

“My grandfather had a pony,” the patriarch reveals. “That was about it. I used to pal around with Tom Power, who would be showing horses in Ballsbridge. I bought a mare in the early ‘80s and that’s it. Sure it’s a disease! You learn by your mistakes.

“But I was very lucky. I brought Al Eile to the sales and I couldn’t get five hundred quid for him. So I brought him home and put him in training. I had him going and then I had Finsceal Beo going at the same time. Patsy Veale was a nice horse too.

NEED LUCK

“But it’s all luck. No matter how much you pay for a horse or how little, you need luck.”

He has 11 in training at present with Bolger, Ted Walsh, Willie McCreery, Ken Condon, Johnny Murtagh, Paddy Twomey and John Oxx.

“A few of them like Ken Condon and Paddy Twomey; they’ve bought horses off us so it’s only right to support them.

“Jim thinks the Invincible Spirit filly (out of Finsceal Beo) is nice. I met him a few weeks ago and he said, ‘I think you got the breeding right at last!’ There’s a nice colt with John Oxx as well. A half-sister of his is running at Naas (today), Annie Pender. Willie had her last year but gave her time and said he’d wait until she was three. She’s a big filly.”

Bolger’s comment on hitting the mark with Invincible Spirit and Finsceal Beo is interesting. Being a great racemare is no guarantee when it comes to producing stock. Galileo, Dubawi, Frankel, Montjeu and Sea The Stars have been among her suitors in the past.

“We went to the best of them with Finsceal Beo but it doesn’t always work. All that ran won but none of them are a patch on her so then we went with speed in Invincible Spirit. She was a fast mare herself. She still holds the track record in Longchamp from 2006.”

The Ryans have never been afraid to keep their mares in the most elite company but will always be keeping an eye on new talent.

“With a mare you’re gonna keep you’d certainly try a first-season sire. Obviously it would need to be well enough bred. Or if we’d a mare that mightn’t justify a high price for her first stallion, then you’ll go to a first-season or second-season sire. We went to No Nay Never last year. He was 25 grand but he’s a 100 grand this year.”

“You take a punt on it,” Micheál expands. “He had some lovely two-year-olds last year. We use a mixture of everyone. No-one knows which of the new ones are going to make it. The first-season sires were hard to move at the sales last year we found. People wanted the more proven horse. You have to try and find the balance.

RACEHORSE

“For us it’s a balance between commercial and racing. You want to get a racehorse but obviously you want to sell. But you try and breed a racehorse first because it’s what they do on the track that determines whether buyers will come back or not.”

Every year starts the same, with a spreadsheet drawn out of such detail that it almost determines how many scoops of feed each horse will get on a daily basis for the year. So they have a pretty good idea what they need to realise during the next 12 months to cover costs.

“You have to make it work,” says Micheál. “I sit down with my father, make the plan for the year and make sure it all balances out.”

“You don’t want surprises,” adds Michael. “You don’t wanna be a fool either.”

What they sell and race can vary.

“This year we kept most of them. With some of the colts, rather than bring them to the sales, we’d race to hope to maximise their value, then sell them. If the (Invincible Spirit-Finsceal Beo) filly turns out to be a decent, blacktype filly, then she’d go back to be a broodmare.

“But it’s all luck. No matter how much you pay for a horse or how little, you need luck.”

“With the Finsceal Beo ones though, you nearly have to sell because it just makes monetary sense. There are seven in total working at the stud as well including Micheál, so there’s a wage bill there on top of everything else. You have to keep the show on the road.

“We have spas, swimming pools and everything for a horse at the stud now which is important in prepping yearlings and pre-training as well.

“Pat Connell is our manager and he has great expertise on breeding and is invaluable to us. Myself and Micheál wouldn’t have had the experience of conformation and that so Pat would look at the mare and then he’d look at the stallion. The stallion has to suit the mare. He’s very strong at that. Micheál and himself would look at all the stallions and obviously Micheál has learned a lot along the way.

“Paddy Lynch looks after the farm. Christy does all the transport. Kayleigh Flavin looks after the horses going to the sales and they always look a million dollars. Wayne and Angela ride out and John Dunford breaks everything. He’s a genius at it.”

The emphasis in the future will be on refining the operation to place a real emphasis on quality. Al Eile is home to 19 mares now and they would like to bring that down to 12 in the coming years.

“Most of them are fairly well-bred. I bought a good few of them in Dubai over the years. You have to renew the stock though. Obviously the one with Jim, we’ll breed off her regardless of what she does. We have a Frankel and we’ll decide if we keep her. Then (Finsceal Beo) is in foal to Kingman.”

PRAGMATISM

Ryan Snr never intended to keep a stallion but Finsceal Beo’s first foal by the mighty Galileo, Finsceal Fior, was born with “a crooked leg” and though the late Ned Gowing of Anglesey Lodge Equine Hospital kept his promise to get the blueblood healthy enough to race, and he was in fact in training with Bolger, pragmatism took hold.

“Jim was going to run him but I said if he runs and he’s no good, nobody’ll go near him and he would probably never run to his potential anyway because of the leg. So I said we’d chance it and I sent him down to Lenihans (Green Hills Stud).”

And so Dewcup provides him with the total package, homebred out of Ryan’s five-time winner Elyaadi, by his own stallion and running in his instantly recognisable dark blue and emerald green hoops.

A full-brother to five-year-old two-time-winning mare Minnie Dahill, who is also a stablemate at Walsh’s Klll yard, Dewcup made a quick turnaround from his bumper triumph in Thurles to record a strong-finishing fourth in the Grade 2 bumper at Aintree.

“He’s a decent horse as well, in fairness,” Ryan opines. “He ran a good race in Aintree and galloped all the way to the line. He’ll go to Punchestown. Ted thinks he’s entitled to win it so we’ll go there. He’s a very good jumper as well.”

“Finsceal Fior has a lot more enquiries now and a lot more covers booked since Dewcup ran in Liverpool,” notes Micheál.

As for the industry generally, they both agree that there are too many low-quality mares around, particularly in the National Hunt division. A second all-weather track to cater for more low grade horses won’t be of any value to those looking to sell on, as Michael points out, but his son emphasises the attraction for syndicates and smaller owners of having a day out and experiencing the thrill of winning at a budget, while more trainers would have horses in their stables.

Ryan sponsors the big handicap at Fairyhouse on Tuesday, the Grade A RYBO Handicap Hurdle.

He believes the breeder and the owner could be treated better generally in Ireland, though matters are improving.

“In France the breeder gets money for the big races and they should have something like that here. The breeder is forgotten about.

“What really galls me though is to win a race as an owner and have no trophy. Now I’m not short of trophies, but even Dewcup winning in Thurles and there was nothing. I thought it was scandalous.

“Down in Killarney, you get a little bowl, you’d buy them in the shop for €10 but you have something. You go into the pub and have something to lift in the air and have a cheer!”

No doubt, there is a business element to the operation but Michael Ryan will never forget why he is in it, first and foremost.

“It’s still fun for me.”