Intensive Care Pays Dividends

Since that fateful afternoon, Intensive Care has wound up in more trouble than his connections would care to remember.

A broken knee resulted from the freakish fall at Terang, but as his constant raceday companion, jockey Simon Ryan recalls, it didn’t stop him from filling the minor placing with an effort that still sticks in the mind of the 27 year old hoop.

"It was quite incredible really !" said Ryan, who has been in the business of professional cross-country riding for about 6 years now.

"We were about 15 lengths in front, but then he fell to his knees over the second last. I managed to stay on and he collected himself up as the field went past us and then fought his way back over the last to wind up third - beaten only about 2.5 lengths. Not bad for having broken his knee !!" he added.

After a six month lay-off, Intensive Care was back in work, but it was not long before the first of two tendon injuries put him out of business again. However, it was following the second occurrence that things took a strange twist of fate.

Put out in the paddock for his leg to recover, initial thoughts were the time had come for a premature retirement, but yet another mishap proved to be the saving grace of his injury plagued career.

"We got a call from the bloke where he was spelling at to say he’d ripped his knee open trying to jump a fence - and it was whilst we had him in the stable recovering from that, we decided to start trotting him around a bit and thought we’d give him another go" said Simon Ryan, who is part of the huge family interest in the horse.

His father, Pat, has been training on and off for the past 10 - 15 years, but solidly over the last 3-4 years, following a career that saw him amass around 300 winners on the flat before a century of winners over the jumps - a feat that was a natural inspiration for Simon to take to the saddle and commence riding trackwork at age 13.

Intensive Care is raced by his trainer’s wife, Colleen - sister of 1985 Melbourne Cup winning jockey Pat Hyland, and son Adam, along with members of the Wishbone Syndicate - headed by other son, Shaun - and local milk bar proprietor, Greg Lane.

The hardy band of connections have certainly seen the tough times with their charge, but the tide may just be starting to turn a little more favourably for them following a courageous victory on home soil in the J & J Kelly Stock Agency Novice Hurdle last Sunday.

"He’s a good stayer and it certainly helped him being over the 3100 metres on the weekend." commented his trainer. " He’s had a lot of injuries and it’s just taken him time to come to hand. He’s pretty much a week to week proposition at the moment, but while he stays sound, there should definitely be some more wins in store for him" added Ryan.

And whilst steady work along the sandy stretches of Warrnambool’s coastline may be the secret to keeping Intensive Care safe and sound, a change in race tactics employed by Simon Ryan on Sunday saw a marked improvement on the pair's last few outings.

"We decided to ride him up on the speed Sunday, rather than drop him out as he’s normally accustomed to and it certainly proved to be the deciding factor as he just outstayed them" said Simon.

The pair showed a clean set of plates for the first half a lap, before relinquishing the lead, content to sit second, until once again forging to the lead with half a mile to go, withstanding the once threatening finish of Brian Constable’s mount Andrestad, which wilted a hundred metres from the post to run second - beaten one and three quarter lengths.. That pair put a space in their rivals, with Tijuana Taxi and his "cabbie", Marty Mills, a further five and a half lengths astern in third place. Debut runner, Dove Edwin’s chances "flew the coop" early in proceedings when he put in a few tardy efforts, but the experience gained by the outing should see him vastly improve on his fourth placing when he next appears.

So while things are ticking along nicely for Intensive Care, plans are in place for the switch back to the bigger obstacles following his next hurdle start at Bendigo in three weeks time, with a tilt at the local Grand Annual Steeplechase in May being the main aim .

"He’s only had the one start over the steeples, and was quite disappointing too. That was at Hamilton back in November and he just got bogged down there but he does handles them really well., and whilst the local big chase is his target, it’s in the back of my mind if he’s up to it to take him to Oakbank in April for the Great Eastern" said his trainer.

And if that Easter excursion comes to fruition, it will be the first time Simon Ryan will have the opportunity to negotiate the demanding Adelaide Hills course, an experience that he is certainly looking forward to. He stated, "I’ve been across to Adelaide before and had a couple of my biggest successes there, aboard a horse called Thames, but I’ve never had the opportunity to ride at Oakbank".

All being well, Intensive Care may not be the only ride Simon takes a booking for at the carnival, with stablemates Mighty Macarno and Willy What looking to cement their berths on the float in the ensuing weeks.

So to keep up to date with the progress of the Ryan stable, make sure you

...........GO JUMP !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don Cooper