FORMER trainer Malachy Ryan from Clonpet in Tipperary town was laid to rest this week, having passed away peacefully but unexpectedly last Saturday. He was 86.

Among the many good horses he trained was the mare Rugged Lucy, who went on to win a Galway Plate for Edward O’Grady.

Arramear, Oonaghs Fancy, Tudor Master, Providence Lodge, Corbally Bess, The Chaffeur and Silver Spray were other notable winners from his Mountain View Stables.

The Kinanes and Slatterys from Killenaule all rode for him, as did Gerry Newman, Stephen Craine, Pat Smullen, Kevin Manning, Johnny Murtagh, Seamus Heffernan, Billy Lee, Tommy Carmody, Barry Geraghty and Kieran Gaule.

Trainer Andy Slattery said: “We knew Malachy all our lives. My father, my brother and myself all rode for him. He was a lovely man and a proper judge of a horse. All the Ryans are hard-working and they got out of it what they put in. Malachy’s son Aidan is like his father and Niall has had shares in a few horses with us. Dermot and Malachy are running two of the most prestigious stud farms in the world. They have all done brilliantly.”

Malachy’s son and namesake, who manages Moyglare Stud, said at the funeral Mass: “Dad loved winning on the racetrack with the horses that he trained, and he enjoyed helping young jockeys on their journey in racing. But nothing gave him more pleasure than winning a red ribbon at the Dublin Horse Show.”

Dermot manages Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Malachy Ryan is survived by his wife Miriam, sons Aidan, John, Dermot, Niall and Malachy, and daughters Edel, Marion and Helen,