RYAN OFF AND SWIMMING IN NEW ROLE

ONE good turn deserved another!

Sara Ryan could not have scripted a better result than her first winner on her home track at Wyong yesterday since branching out as a public trainer.

That occurred when Oceans One ($5.50) defeated Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle’s $3.90 favorite Formal in the Provincial Benchmark 68 Handicap (1000m).

Ryan was the sole provincial winner on the eight-race program, but that wasn’t the important thing.

In scoring with Oceans One, she repaid the gelding’s owner Camille Alexander for having the faith to back her.

“When Camille found out that I had decided to start my own training business, she was kind enough to give me a few horses,” Ryan said this evening.

“Oceans One is one of them, so it was very satisfying to get my first winner with him.”

A seven-year-old by Super One, Oceans One had been in a number of stables and won four races before being switched from his previous Hawkesbury trainer to Ryan.

He won an 845m trial at Wyong on September 20 before making his debut for Ryan when fourth to Gosford mare Stratafy in a 900m Benchmark 64 Handicap at Newcastle on September 20.

Oceans One gave plenty of cheek that day out in front, and finished only one and a quarter lengths from the winner, who also contested yesterday’s race and finished fifth.

“I hadn’t started Oceans One since Newcastle, and was a bit concerned about the break between races,” Ryan said.

“However he paraded really well, and Alysha Collett gave him a great ride.”

Oceans One sidled alongside the pacy Hawkesbury mare Too Darn Lovely on the home turn and Collett waited until after straightening before calling on her mount.

Oceans One gave a good response and established a nice break which enabled him to get to the winning post in time, narrowly holding off Formal and former Queenslander Hellish ($6), who was having his first start since joining Mitch Beer and George Carpenter’s team at Kembla Grange.

Hellish was slow to begin and in the circumstances turned in an excellent performance at his first start since August 22 at Cairns.

Ryan, who prepared 60 winners as Domeland’s head trainer on the Central Coast, has understandably taken time setting herself up at her Wyong stable.

“Obviously I had to start from scratch, and get horses and staff and gradually put things in place,” she explained.

“Oceans One was only my seventh starter, and I now have 20 horses in work.”

On the eve of this year’s $3m Big Dance at Royal Randwick on Tuesday, Ryan won the feature race for Domeland two years ago with the now retired Attractable.

Meanwhile Doyle’s slender defeat with Formal had further disappointment when stablemate Inception was a late withdrawal from the closer, the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1625m), when kicked by another horse in the tie-up stalls area, and was found to have a laceration and be 1/5 lame in the off hind leg.

Story John Curtis, October 31, 2025