‘Eddie’ blouses them after anxious moments!

He normally tries to stay calm and collected these days, but Bendigo harness racing trainer David Van Ryn admits he did get a bit toey before tasting Menangle success this week!

Van Ryn’s trotter Uptown Lad (Sebastian K) had little trouble handling his opposition during a trip north from Central Victoria, but his Tuesday afternoon assignment wasn’t without its anxious moments.

“When our bloke broke in the score-up I felt sick and thought this could be a big waste of time and effort – it took us nearly nine hours on the road to get there!” Van Ryn said.

“Then I heard it was called a false start and I thought ‘you ripper’. Thankfully, the next time we were on our best behavior and zipped to the front,” he said.

Uptown Lad (nicknamed Eddie) is one of five trotters prepared by Van Ryn and took out the fourth heat of the HRNSW 2yo Trotters Foundation series. Rated perfectly by Leigh Sutton, one of Victoria’s best freelance drivers, Uptown Lad reeled off splits of 29.4, 30.9, 29.3 and 30.6 for an overall time of two minutes for the flying mile.

“Leigh told us after the race that the horse just got off on the wrong foot at the first go. It wasn’t a nice feeling,” Van Ryn said.

“So now we’re back up there next Tuesday to compete in another round of heats leading into a $25,000 final (on Saturday June 18),” he said.

“I did think of leaving him up there with someone, but he handled the road trip really well. The other one who also made the trip (five-year-old) Simulant didn’t perform all that well and has hardly eaten since, so obviously he didn’t handle it at all.

“Shaun McNaulty has offered me his pacer Hashtag to go as a travelling companion next week with Uptown Lad, which is nice. I’ll most likely take him up.”

Uptown Lad, who won on debut at Maryborough on Apr 15, was bred by Van Ryn’s wife Kristy. She now races the square-gaiter with loyal stable owners Helen Friend and Tracey Plush.

Van Ryn said he decided on a Menangle campaign after missing a number of race starts in Victoria.

“We won the Aldebaran Park 2yo trot at his first start, and because we had collected more than $10,000 in stakes we then couldn’t go in the Homegrown. I had him in at Kilmore and that meeting got washed out, and then two others didn’t stand up,” he said.

“I like the horse a fair bit. He’s a natural two-year-old and he’s smart so that’s when I got looking at NSW programs. He’s a lot more relaxed now, whereas earlier he just wanted to run 100mph. ‘Sutto’ said he dropped the bit nicely when he got to the front.

“If we get through to the $25,000 final, and the horse is holding his condition, then there’s a NSW bred feature event worth $30,000 later in the month.

“But if he’s not licking out his feed bin and if he leaves one crumb, I won’t hesitate to pull the pin.”

Van Ryn, who has trained more than 200 winners in his career, has only been back training since Christmas.

“I went back to brick laying for two years. But I’m happy to be back with the horses because I have always loved them. I think I used to get down on myself and take everything to heart so the break was worthwhile,” he said.

“I’m thoroughly enjoying it now. We’ve got five trotters in work and one pacer, but I’d like to build up to a dozen. My dad Cory comes out to the stables most days and gives a hand – he probably does most of the work!”

Cory Van Ryn specialized in trotters and won multiple feature events, including a number of Group Ones. He used the Marong public training track to put the final polish on most of his team.

“Dad has the form on the board so I always listen, but don’t give him credit!” Van Ryn laughed.

“I thought I was rounding him up in terms of my tally of winners, but he’s still way ahead.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink