MANY congratulations to north Co Dublin’s James Ryan on being crowned champion apprentice at The Curragh last Sunday, when he ended the turf Flat racing season with 33 wins to his credit, two ahead of his nearest rivals, Adam Caffrey and Wayne Hassett.

In the calendar year to date, James has ridden in just over 500 races with 270+ of his mounts being supplied by his boss Tom McCourt, who not only supports his apprentice with rides, but goes through every one of those with him the following day.

While his skills in the saddle have become well-known among the racing fraternity in recent years, James honed these on the hunting field (with the Ward Union Hunt and the Louth Foxhounds), as a member of the Ward Union Pony Club and as a very successful competitor with the Irish Pony Society.

Chronologically James’s biggest wins as a member of the IPS started in July 2016, when he partnered the Moorhall Miniature gelding Springdale Superstar to be supreme champion at the Wicklow Area summer championships.

Accomplished

Over the next three years, he and the Connemara gelding Loughwell Bobby claimed the supreme championship at the IPS summer championships (July 2017), won the 143cm sports pony challenge final in Barnadown (July 2018), their 143cm working hunter pony class, and went reserve supreme, at the British Show Pony Society championship show at Arena UK (August 2018), the WHP title at Balmoral Show (May 2019), again won the 143cm sports pony challenge final, this time in Mullingar (June 2019) and were on the Irish team at the European WHP championships in Wales (August 2019).

At the 2019 Dublin Horse Show, James finished third in both the 143cm and 153cm WHP classes on Donode Mabel Molly and his father Kieran’s hunter Ardfinnian respectively.

Later in August, he and Ardfinnian were crowned WHP champions and overall intermediate champions at the IPS summer championships.

Back at Arena UK, James and Loughwell Bobby were on the Irish WHP team at the BSPS championship, where he rode Donode Dolly in the area team competition.

One of the champion apprentice’s proudest moments on the equestrian fronts came in September 2021, at which stage he had already started in racing, when he landed the Horse Sport Ireland-sponsored Derby at Lambertstown riding Fairyhouse Coco for his good friend, the much-missed Anna Byrne.

Don’t for one moment think that riding was James’s only interest in his younger days, as he captained the Hills cricket team to win the boys’ under 11 all-Ireland final in September 2016 and, in November 2021, won the Dublin minor football final playing for Fingal Ravens GAA club.

James Ryan celebrated his win in the 2024 apprentice championship with his twin brother Ivan, the show horse rider who partnered his first winner over hurdles at Fairyhouse on Tuesday, his mother Mairead, who represented Ireland in eventing at the Barcelona Olympics, and his father Kieran, the well-known show horse producer.