Ryan and Tahiyra Two Stars to Follow on the Flat in 2023
2023 is the year horse racing will say goodbye to the retiring Frankie Dettori. Will the famous Italian ride a 21st British classic winner? Or take a seventh Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe? And, as one legend prepares to hang up his saddle, who will be the outstanding stars of the forthcoming flat season?
Rossa Ryan (purple colors) finished second in the 2022 Gold Cup aboard Mojo Star. Will 2023 provide the up-and-coming jockey with a breakthrough Group-1 winner? ©GettyImages
Up-and-coming jockeys to follow include champion apprentice Benoit de la Sayette, Kevin Stott, Daniel Muscutt and Rossa Ryan. It is the latter that might overcome the disappointment of the loss of a riding contract and use his popularity amongst successful stables to make the biggest impression of all during the year ahead.
Impressive Run of Success
Runner-up in the 2018 Apprentice Championship, the Galway-born Rossa Ryan has gradually made his way up the rider ranks. His first British winner came at Lingfield in March 2017 when aged just 16. He would ride a further 20 winners during the year.
After riding out his claim – 95 winners are needed before jockeys no longer receive a weight allowance – many young riders can struggle. But, in 2019, Ryan won his first Group race – aboard Duke of Hazzard at Goodwood – and, in 2020, he rode a Royal Ascot winner.
2021 yielded an impressive 102 winners. Last year his outstanding achievements included a runner-up spot aboard Mojo Star in the Gold Cup. There was Group-3 success at the Curragh aboard Go Bears Go and victory in a Newmarket Group-2 on Persian Force. This two-year-old was also later twice placed in Group-1 company under the 22-year-old.
However, those horses were all owned by leading football agent Kia Joorabchian – whose racehorses run under the name Amo Racing – and, in the late summer, the owner and jockey ended their successful partnership.
Ryan Shooting at 150 Winner Target
Without the support of an emerging ownership superpower, will Ryan sink or swim during the year ahead? With ambition to match his talent, numerically 2023 could be Ryan’s best-ever year. Opting to stay in the UK and ride on the all-weather circuit during the winter months, the jockey has got his year off to a flying start.
By mid-January, 31 rides had delivered Ryan with seven winners. Those mounts came from 20 individual trainers. Amongst those that have used his services are leading yards such as Ralph Beckett, Charlie Johnson, Hugo Palmer and Alan King.
Following the second of two winning January rides for King, the young rider told the Racing Post: “I’d love to break my Group 1 duck this year. We’ll just have to take it as it comes. Hopefully, we can top last year. I think the aim for both me and my agent is to get as close to 150 as possible.”
Popular with major stables and yards more associated with mundane mid-week races, Ryan can make his mark in 2023. The Irishman finished 15th in last season’s Jockeys Championship, which runs between the Guineas Festival in May and British Champions Day in October.
Only seven winners shy of a top-10 spot, it is easy to predict Ryan’s career trajectory will carry him into the higher tiers of the title standings this time around. A top-five position could be achieved should he remain injury and suspension free during the summer months.
Victory over Mediate Resolved Guineas Betting
There are numerous horses to follow in 2023 – from leniently treated handicappers to potential Gold Cup contenders. And the destiny of the British classics is always subject to speculation. Ante-post betting markets on the Guineas do healthy business for 10 months a year.
In 2023, the Irish-trained Tahiyra is trading as the 4/1 favorite for the 1000 Guineas. Unbeaten in two career starts – and racing in colors forever synonymous with Shergar – the three-year-old is also 8/1 joint-favorite for the Oaks.
The filly’s position in both betting markets comes courtesy of her impressive dismissal of the previously unbeaten Mediate in the Group-1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh in August. Mediate, trained by Aidan O’Brien, had already won three Group races, and she went on to land the Grade-1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The One to Beat on Form and Breeding
Tahiyra is handled by Dermot Weld. The veteran trainer has won the Derby, Oaks, and 2000 Guineas during his career, but the English 1000 Guineas is missing from his portfolio. Will this be the horse to fill in a missing piece on Weld’s CV?
Dermot Weld has never won Newmarket’s 1000 Guineas. Will he aim Tahiyra at the classic in 2023? ©GettyImages
On the ability she showed as a two-year-old, Tahiyra is the one to beat in the Newmarket classic. On pedigree, as a daughter of Tarana, she is also the one to beat. Her dam has already produced the outstanding Group-1 and 2020 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Tarnawa.
Interestingly, Tarnawa was unable to win a race in her three outings as a two-year-old. That failure bodes well for Tahiyra’s prospects of improving during the winter months. However, there has to be a ‘but’. And that ‘but’ is …is Weld willing to travel to the UK with his young star?.
But What about Staying at Home?
The Curragh-based trainer may have famously taken Vintage Crop to Australia to win the Melbourne Cup in 1993, but he has become a rare visitor to British racecourses in recent years. During the past five seasons, Weld has had just 21 runners on British courses. They yielded three winners.
Unquestionably the Irish or French 1000 Guineas would be an easier option for Tahiyra. Weld has won the Irish 1000 Guineas five times in the past. And he could easily decide that classic – staged a stone’s throw from his stables – is the better option for the Aga Khan-owned horse.
In fact, Unibet sportsbook believes this will be her chosen one-mile classic. The online sportsbook quote Tahiyra at just 9/4 for the Irish version of the 1000 Guineas. Therefore, the suggestion is to avoid the temptation of backing Tahiyra ante-post for any 1000 Guineas until her target race is clarified. But the recommendation is to back the filly in whatever race she ultimately contests.
