Irish living in Aus Galway/Melbourne
national hunt jockey
Joined October 2012
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Tom Ryan retweeted
The Guardian says 68% of Australians have low or no interest in the Melbourne Cup. Here’s what it left out.
First, the poll jumps around massively from year to year. It asked just 1,003 people, and low or no interest went from 52% in 2022 to 62% in 2023, then back to 52% in 2024. Without a major crisis, public opinion doesn’t swing 16 points up and back down in two years. Small polls do.
Even taking it as fact, the Cup is right where you’d expect. If 68% aren’t interested then 32% of Australians have an interest in the Cup. When the same pollster asked about other major events:
Australian Open: 45%
Cricket World Cup: 42%
Melbourne Cup: 32%
Australian F1 Grand Prix: 23%
Bathurst 1000: 14%
Nobody is writing headlines about the Grand Prix losing the nation’s interest...
Even the footy codes don’t reach most of the country. 42% of Australians call themselves AFL fans and 30% call themselves NRL fans. The AFL and NRL grand finals are two of the most watched programs of the year, and each was watched by less than 25% of Australians.
And the people who care still showed up. 97,112 people went to Flemington yesterday. That’s the biggest Cup Day crowd since 2016.
No sporting event in this country has most of the population on board and The Cup is no different. The same numbers could’ve read “Almost 1 in 3 Australians show an interest in the Cup” but there’s no prizes for guessing why they didn’t 😂
Tom Ryan retweeted
WHAT THE F$&K ARE WE DOING???
Apparently horse racing isn’t complicated enough!!!!!
@hisa_us voted UNANIMOUSLY to continue allowing Lasix for horses 3 and older in non-stakes races. Their own scientific review found no evidence supporting the claim that Lasix is a performance-enhancing drug.
But the @BreedersCup decides that at their event, even ALLOWANCE horses can’t use Lasix???
So a horse can use Lasix in an allowance race on a normal racing day @Keeneland, but NOT during Breeders’ Cup weekend???
We have the top trainers, owners, and best horsemen in the game, and close to 20% of the horses entered will end up scratched by the time this weekend is over!!!!!
Put these same horses ion a Wednesday card at Aqueduct, and I bet 95% of them are running!!!!!
So apparently, horses that are healthy enough to run during the week aren’t good enough to run on Breeders’ Cup weekend???
TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!!!
The @jockeyclub, Breeders’ Cup, and HISA don’t give a shit about trainers, horseman, jockeys, horseplayers, fans, etc.
Same old insiders making the same old bullshit decisions!!!!!
With these organizations, it seems like OPTICS, POLITICS AND BULLSHIT COME FIRST.
HORSES SECOND.
HORSEMEN LAST!!!!!
CAN SOMEBODY EXPLAIN WHAT THE F$&K THE BREEDERS’ CUP IS DOING???
ATTN BETTORS:
Undercard @BreedersCup reminder…every race on card is Lasix free. So over 20 undercard runners next two days coming off Lasix, even in allowance races. Real helpful for bettors. A delightful tradition since 2020 🤦🏻♂️
Tom Ryan retweeted
"The old master, he'll hate me calling him old actually" 🤣
'Old' or not, he's one of racing's modern greats and has gained the ultimate respect of his peers. Peter Moody 👑
@moodyracingpgm
Jesus I spotted someone I know there!!!! 😉
Closing Credits from Racing UK 2006 Festival including My Way DeSolzen, Detroit City, Black Jack Ketchum and Gold Cup #WarOfAttrition
Tom Ryan retweeted
David Casey, born July 13, 1975, in Waterford, Ireland, discovered racing late at 15, with minimal prior equine experience beyond brief pony rides as a child.
Apprenticed to Flat trainer Tony Redmond in 1992, he quickly pivoted to National Hunt, debuting professionally in 1994. His first win came on February 18, 1995, aboard If You Say Yes in a claiming hurdle at Gowran Park, trained by Willie Mullins—a partnership that defined his 20-year career. Casey turned conditional in 1996, freelancing for yards like Arthur Moore and Paul Nicholls, and finished as Champion Conditional Rider with 21 wins in 1995/96.
Casey's achievements spanned elite jumps racing, amassing 776 winners with a 15-18% strike rate. He secured 15 Grade 1 triumphs, including two Irish Hennessy Gold Cups (Rule Supreme, 2004; Kempes, 2011), two Thyestes Chases (This Is Serious, 2002; On His Own, 2012) , two French Champion Hurdles (Nobody Told Me, 2003; Faugheen, 2014), the Galway Plate (Ansar, 2004), Galway Hurdle (Mystical City, 2004), and two French Triumph Hurdle equivalents. At Cheltenham Festival, he notched three wins: the 2002 Grand Annual Chase on Fadoudal du Cochet (Moore), 2004 Royal & SunAlliance Chase on Rule Supreme (Mullins), and 2006 Jewson Novices' Chase on The Listener (Pipe).
In 2003, he ranked fourth in Ireland's jockey standings with 42 wins. His tactical patience excelled on versatile chasers and hurdlers, often for Mullins.
Challenges tempered his rise. Injuries abounded—a 2004 broken leg from a Punchestown fall, broken neck, two broken arms, fractured collarbone, and dislocated hip—yet resilience shone, like returning to win the 2004 Irish Hennessy post-recovery. He never claimed a Champion Jockey title, overshadowed by peers like Ruby Walsh, but his consistency earned quiet acclaim.
Casey's legacy is understated mastery: a journeyman who bridged eras, mentoring talents like Patrick Mullins while embodying jumps' unyielding spirit. As Mullins noted, "David grew with us—from boy to backbone." 🐎❤️👍
Tom Ryan retweeted
One jockey, 3 different angles from 3 different photographers
Jump racing isn’t for the weak hearted 😅
📸 Todd marks, Tammie J Monaco, middleburg photo
Tom Ryan retweeted
Wouldn’t it be nice if the handicapper informed the public about what or if any penalty for So You Are ASAP before uneducated punters lose their money cold ?
#orderofentry
Tom Ryan retweeted
Sunday Silence was a classic ugly duckling.
Like many of Halo's progeny, he was a plain dark bay or brown with unattractive leg conformation.
Cow-hocked and sickle-hocked behind, he had offset knees and long pasterns in front and lacked overall substance.
Tom Ryan retweeted
Final Orders’ presentation ceremony
Congratulations @gavincromwell1
#RacingAroundTheWorld
Tom Ryan retweeted
Final Orders wins the Velká Pardubická for @donoghue_keith & @gavincromwell1 👏👏 no better man to have on their back in these type of races 🙌 there will be a fair party in Prague tonight with the owners 🇮🇪🇨🇿
Tom Ryan retweeted
Just have a look at the mental, wasteful, bureaucratic bullshit, red tape idiocy taking place in Australia.
@DrJessCollins
Tom Ryan retweeted
The patriarch of one of racing’s greatest families has left us 😢
A true gentleman who lived an extraordinary 90 years, Paddy will be missed by the entire racing industry ❤️
Tom Ryan retweeted
"The rest have all had a go, how could I stop her?" 🥹
What a man. What a life. What a legacy.
Vale Paddy Payne.
Tom Ryan retweeted
When you’re one of our country’s greatest ever athletes, and you’ve waiting your whole life to perform at our national stadium, you deserve a rendition of our national anthem like this…
Tom Ryan retweeted
🇭🇰 The HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup #Kayingrising
Sha Tin - Turf - Groupe 3 - Handicap - 1207m - 6 Pts - 537 654 Hk$
🏆 🥇Ka Ying Rising (h6) (Nz) 🏇Zac Purton @zpurton
🥈Copartner Prance
🥉Magic Control
📖(Shamexpress (Nz) - Missy Moo (Nz) par Per Incanto (Usa))
🕶️D Hayes
🎩Ka Ying Syndicate
🐎Grandmoral Lodge Racing
Tom Ryan retweeted
Goosebumps 🤯
This Irish crowd is special 👏
#TaylorPili | LIVE NOW on DAZN ▪️
Tom Ryan retweeted
Just a reminder that tomorrow is Jersey Day - Please wear your favoured jersey to show your support for Organ Donation. See the below information about how and why this day was created.
Tom Ryan retweeted
From 3 September the EU is blocking most Brazilian beef, chicken and other animal products.
The issue isn’t a contamination scare - it’s that Brazil hasn’t given the guarantees the EU now requires on how antimicrobials are used.
Growth-promoting antibiotics and certain drugs reserved for human medicine are banned for EU producers; imports must meet the same bar for the animal’s whole life. Brazil hasn’t satisfied that test.
Great Britain is running its own assessment and has not copied the ban, so Brazilian meat can still enter England, Scotland and Wales. Farming unions want tighter controls, pointing to the risk that product shut out of the EU could be diverted here.
That’s a good moment to think about what you actually put on the plate.
UK farmers have already cut antibiotic use sharply - total sales for food animals are down well over 50% since 2014, and the highest-priority drugs used in human medicine have fallen even further.
Growth promoters have been illegal here for two decades. Local meat, eggs and dairy also come with shorter supply chains, clearer origin, and far less processing than a lot of the imported product that ends up in ready meals and food service.
Choosing locally sourced whole foods - a joint from a known farm, seasonal vegetables, proper eggs - doesn’t just support those standards. It means fresher food with fewer additives and a production system you can actually trace.
That’s a straightforward health choice, no matter whatever happens next with import rules.
