Inside the Winner’s Circle: Hunter O’Riley

[Wandering Eyes]

“Inside the Winner’s Circle, Presented by Keeneland” is a series showcasing graduates of the Keeneland September sale who have gone on to achieve success on racing’s biggest stages.

Hunter O’Riley (Tiz Wonderful) has now won at the sport’s highest level, in a Grade I race. The veteran gelding, a $120,000 purchase at the 2014 Keeneland September sale, captured the GI United Nations on June 22 at Monmouth. It was his second graded stakes win, his fifth win overall and it raised his career earnings to $620,293. While he should have a lot of racing left in him, those are the types of numbers and accomplishments whereby his career can already be considered a major success.

It’s just that his path to the United Nations winner’s circle was one filled with fits and starts and guided by a team that refused to give up on their horse.

Hunter O’Riley is owned by Sean Shay and Mike Ryan, who were, along with two others, involved in a pinhooking partnership that bought several prospects at the 2014 Keeneland sale. Ryan is among the best in the business when it comes to pinhooking and his plan was to turn around and sell Hunter O’Riley the next year at a 2 year-old sale and, hopefully, collect a nice return on his original investment.

Ryan doesn’t make many mistakes, but in this case he did, at least when it came to the original plan of trying to sell Hunter O’Riley as a 2-year-old. As he would later find out, he wound up with a horse that had no early speed and would do his best running in marathon races on the grass. That’s not exactly the type of horse people are looking for at 2 year-old sales.

Hunter O’Riley was entered in a 2-year-old sale and, right away, Ryan knew he was in trouble.

“He didn’t have enough speed to do what you need to do at a 2-year-old sale,” Ryan said. “When he breezed, he just wasn’t quick. He breezed in ’11’ and you just can’t sell a horse that goes in ’11.'”

Knowing they were looking at a sure loss if they allowed the horse to sell, the partnership started to unravel. Ryan didn’t want to let the horse go, but couldn’t convince everyone that they should give Hunter O’Riley a chance to prove himself on the racetrack. So Ryan bought back his own horse, paying $50,000, effectively buying out the other owners. Only Shay stayed in.

Hunter O’Riley wins the UN | Equi-Photo

“I have all the confidence in the world in Mike,” Shay said. “He and Niall Brennan (who works closely with Ryan in many aspects of his business) are world-renowned. They are at the top of their game and I am a relative beginner when it comes to the game. Mike knows what he is doing. Everybody I talk to in the industry knows him and no one has a bad thing to say about him. When Mike asked if I wanted to stay in, it was a no-brainer. At $50,000, the price was right.”

At the outset, it had appeared that Shay and Ryan had made a good bet. Hunter O’Riley broke his maiden in his third career start before finishing seventh in the GII Remsen in 2015. He didn’t return to the races until the following June and, at first, he didn’t live up to the promise he had shown at two. He seemed to be one of those horses who fell somewhere in the middle of the pack when it comes to quality. He was too good to be a claimer but not good enough to be a stakes horse, at least a high-level stakes horse. He went 1 for 7 in 2016, the lone win coming in an allowance race at Belmont.

It was a case of more of the same in 2017, but, finally, the horse started to show the ability Ryan always believed he had in him. He shined in the summer of 2017, winning the GII Bowling Green and then losing by just 1 1/4 lengths in the GI Sword Dancer at Saratoga when finishing fourth.

In his final start in 2017, he finished ninth in the GIII Red Smith, but Ryan, Shay and trainer Jimmy Toner believed that they had a horse that had finally hit his best stride. They were convinced he was going to have a big year in 2018. It did not work out that way.

The horse raced just once in 2018, in the GII Elkhorn at Keeneland. Not only did he finish ninth, he strained a ligament in the race and would miss the rest of the year.

He entered the United Nations having not won a race in 23 months and off a six-race losing streak. During the streak, he didn’t finish among the top three in any of his races. It was a frustrating time for all involved and Shay and Ryan said it was made even worse by an on-going pattern where their jockeys would not follow instructions.

“He doesn’t have any stamina limitations, but he’s not a quick horse,” Ryan said. “We learned he’s one of those horses who walks out of the gate and gallops along behind the field. If you let him do that, just drop your hands on him and let there be a loop in the reins, he’ll just gallop around there and he’ll be 20 lengths behind them. He’ll make a nice run from the five eighths to the wire, but winds up getting beat 3, 4, 5 lengths while still making up 15 lengths on the field.”

For the United Nations, Toner and the owners picked jockey Paco Lopez and he was given specific instructions: whatever you have to do, get this horse into the race early.

“Paco Lopez was down to ride him and he’s a good gate rider, an aggressive rider,” Ryan said. “This horse needs to be put in the bridle leaving the gate. He needs a couple of little taps on the shoulder to get his attention, get his mind on things. You have to put him in the bridle and make him carry you. Don’t let him drop back 20 lengths and be passive and then expect he’ll make it all up when they’re going three-quarters in 1:16, 1:17. You’re not going to run them down.”

Lopez got the message. Though his mount was seventh in the early going of the mile-and-three-eighths turf race, he was never more than four lengths behind the leaders. At the top of the stretch, he was third, just 1 1/2-lengths behind. From there, he got past Zulu Alpha (Street Cry {Ire}) to win by a neck.

“Paco rode him to perfection because he was never more than four lengths off the lead,” Ryan said. “We finally got a jockey to listen to us.”

It was a big day for Ryan, who acted as the advisor for Jim Rupp at the 2017 Keeneland September Sale where Rupp purchased Owendale (Into Mischief) for $200,000. Five minutes after the United Nations was completed, Owendale won the GIII Ohio Derby, a $500,000 race.

“It was an awfully good afternoon for us,” Ryan said.

Finally, there doesn’t appear to be anything standing in the way for the 6 year-old gelding. He is healthy and the team has apparently found the perfect jockey, an aggressive rider who understands you have little to no chance if you drop 15 lengths behind in a marathon grass race, the type of race where the pace is almost always extremely slow.

“I’m just so happy that he won, a Grade I at that,” Shay said. “Well go to Saratoga now (for the GII Bowling Green) and, who knows, I think we might have a horse for the (GI) Breeders’ Cup Turf.”
Ryan said the GIII Calumet Cup, now worth $1 million, at Kentucky Downs is another target.

Ryan knows, and has experienced firsthand with this horse, that things don’t always work out as planned when it comes to race horses. But he also knows that he has a sound horse, that a change in tactics when it comes to his running style appears to have made a major difference and that quality horses who prefer long distance races on the grass are perfectly capable of competing at a top level even when they are 8 or 9 years-old.

“Look at what horses like John’s Call and even John Henry did during the latter stages of their careers,” Ryan pointed out.

Way back when he bought the horse in 2014 at Keeneland, Ryan believed in Hunter O’Riley, believed that this was a horse with the potential to earn a lot of money, and now his expectations have been met. It just took a while.

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