Teme Valley Racing has enjoyed outstanding success the world over, campaigning the likes of international Group 1 winner State Of Rest and fellow top-notchers Bayside Boy and Numerian.

Richard Ryan, who manages and sources runners for the operation, tells us all about its success and his thoughts on Hellsing, the Goffs Million and the Orby Sale.

Tell us a little about Teme Valley Racing and some of your best-known horses.

We’ve been around for a few years now. As previously documented, it’s the brainchild of myself and Mr [Jim] Cockburn, the proprietor, and we chose that name for all our horses to run under.

State Of Rest carried our colours to win the Saratoga Derby and Cox Plate before he was sold as a stallion prospect to a syndicate of studs, for whom he won the Prix Ganay and Prince of Wales’s Stakes this year. What a fabulous horse he was. It was a heavy decision to sell him at that point, but a logical one in terms of the scale of our operation relative to his value. It will take a long time trying to find another one as good as him.

Teme Valley still owns State Of Rest’s year-younger half-sister Tranquil Lady, who was purchased from the Goffs Orby Sale, and she’s worked out pretty well too!

We were aware of how good State Of Rest was, or had the potential to be, and so we knew we’d have to move fast to secure his half-sister. Being by Australia and a very good individual herself, there was a lot of upside to her and thankfully it worked out well, as she won the Blue Wind Stakes by four lengths this year.

Gear Up, another Goffs Orby Sale graduate, carried the Teme Valley silks to Group 1 victory in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud at two in 2020. What’s the latest on him?

Joseph O’Brien’s done a tremendous job of getting his mojo back this season and he’s looked back to his best when running second in the Curragh Cup and winning the Ballyroan on his last two starts. We had designs on Joseph sending him to the Caulfield Cup but some of Racing Victoria’s new requirements for international runners put a bit of a spanner in the works.

However, it’s always been the intention to race him in Australia at some point, and with that in mind the September Stakes will be his last race in Europe and he will now go down to Australia to be stabled and race from there.

Teme Valley has one of the likely favourites for this year’s Goffs Million race in decisive Churchill Stakes scorer Hellsing. What’s the word on him?

He’s a very nice individual and Ger Lyons rates him highly. The Goffs Million has been the plan for him for a while. We had the option of going down the more conventional route of contesting stakes races with him, but the carrot of a very, very large pot in the Goffs Million was too hard to resist and it focused our plans.

Take nothing away from his sire Dandy Man, but if you’re not buying a fabulous stallion prospect with the very best pedigree who needs stakes race successes to prove his stud credentials, it’s only logical to try for nearly €500,000 in first-place prize-money for the Goffs Million instead of a Group race worth a tenth of that or less, where you’re also likely to bump into a potential champion from one of the top stables.

Hellsing winning the Listed Coolmore Churchill Stakes at Tipperary

Do you remember when you first saw Hellsing at the Goffs Orby Sale?

Absolutely. It was a very quick and easy decision to purchase him, actually. He was a really impressive individual with a bold step – a very masculine colt – and he’d only taken five or six strides out of his stable door before I was taken with him.  Ger had reservations on the pedigree but when he saw him in the flesh he was taken with him straight away too, so as I say: an easy decision.

Are there any other Goffs Orby Sale purchases of yours we should look out for?

I bought a number last year, all at different stages of growth and maturity. New Endeavour, a son of New Bay owned in partnership with Ballylinch, looks progressive and might come under consideration for the Goffs Million after winning at Kempton recently.

Joseph O’Brien has a couple of colts who are just coming to hand, they won’t be ready in time for the Goffs Million but they’re very much horses to look forward to next year. 

Paddy Twomey has a Showcasing filly from the sale [Persian Jewel] who’s a very taking individual, but she’s still growing and you can’t push buttons while they’re still going through that phase. I’ve no doubt she’s full of promise, though.

So you’ll be back looking for more exciting horses at this year’s Goffs Orby Sale?

Undoubtedly! I’m looking forward to sourcing the next Stakes-class horses for some of our Irish trainers.

Goffs has been a happy hunting ground for me for many years. I worked with Terry Mills for nearly 19 years and we had an awful lot of success with our Goffs purchases in that time, finding a number of stakes winners and Royal Ascot scorers.

The layout of the inspection grounds makes it exceptionally easy to cover a large number of horses in a short space of time, compared with some other sales companies.

Goffs have worked hard on making sure the level of colt they receive from the predominantly Irish vendors is of a very high standard, so it suits my remit perfectly.