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By Ray Hickson

Brock Ryan hasn’t sat on a horse since March. And he’s not sure if he wants to again, certainly not in the short term.

Brock Ryan in his new role as a groundsman at Kemble Grange. (Pic: Jess Webber/Bradley Photos).

The life of a jockey started to lose its appeal for the 30-year-old when he returned from a shoulder reconstruction in the spring of last year and came to a head early in 2024.

But he’s not lost to racing because Ryan has found a job behind the scenes at Kembla Grange.

It’s a stark contrast to three years ago when Ryan was the toast of the Illawarra as he guided local star Count De Rupee to a popular win in the $1 million The Gong.

But he’s feeling right at home with a full time role as a grounds keeper working for course manager Dave Anderson. While he’s not riding on the tracks, he’s there making sure those that are get the best surface possible.

“I love it, and it means I’m still involved in the industry,’’ Ryan said.

“I still know everyone and talk to them on race days, I still have the passion to come to work and make the race day run smooth and get the track presentable and in good condition for the races.

“I just don’t want to be on top of a horse and racing.

“You can’t be a jockey forever and I’m not going to retire on big money even if I kept going.”

When asked if barrier attendant work was part of the job, Ryan said sometimes he’ll appear behind the gates but you’ll not likely find him trying to push a 500kg horse into the stalls any time soon.

“I said to Dave I wasn’t that keen to load the horses in, I’d probably rather not be in front of them and loading them in the barriers,'' he said.

"Because I’m small they just run over the top of me."

Ryan rode his first winner at Adaminaby back in November 2015 and in just under 3700 rides has ridden 331 winners – more than one fifth of them for Robert and Luke Price.

The spring of 2021 was particularly good to him with Count De Rupee’s Gong win, along with that horse’s narrow defeat in the Golden Eagle, and Group 2 wins on Jamaea for the Prices and Chat for John Thompson.

But simply, Ryan said by early this year he’d lost the drive to be a jockey.

“I was going to the races and not wanting to be there, I didn’t have any hunger,’’ he said.

“A lot of jockeys say you can’t get that money anywhere else and you suck it up and keep going. To me, if you don’t have the passion and the hunger you shouldn’t be doing it.

“I came to the conclusion it wasn’t fair to the owners, the trainers, the punters, it’s not fair to anyone to be going to the races and going through the motions.”

After about a month of “doing nothing” when he rode his last race, it was a small push from his partner Madison Waters that led to taking on the new gig at Kembla Grange.

With Waters restarting her apprenticeship in the Price stable following the birth of their son Parker last year, the timing works out well as Ryan cares for Parker while Waters is at trackwork then when she returns he heads off to the track.

It may seem a sharp career move but it's certainly not a field that’s foreign to Ryan, prior to becoming a jockey he worked for two years as a grounds person at a caravan park in Yamba, and he plans to complete a course in sports turf management at TAFE in the new year.

“It gives her a chance to finish her apprenticeship and I stay home with the young fellow in the morning,’’ he said.

Brock Ryan wins the 2021 The Gong on Count De Rupee (Pic: Bradley Photos)

“I was keen to keep working. I have a good interest in turf and it made sense, but Maddy actually talked to Dave first about it before I did.

“I have tinkered with the idea, once it gets a bit easier with my son, of going back and riding a bit of trackwork and working at the track through the day.

“My feelings might change, one day I might want to have a race but we’ll see what happens. I am really enjoying working at the club and groundskeeping.”

Ryan said it might feel a bit strange when the field heads out for The Illawarra Mercury Gong on Saturday but he’s comfortable that he’s made the right call and doesn’t mind the fact that there’s a different kind of pressure on him.

Three years ago he certainly felt it, having ridden an early double on the day before being legged up on Count De Rupee and with the weight of expectation, not the least his own, on his shoulders.

“It wasn’t so much from owners or Luke and Rob but I put a bit of pressure on myself. Which I tend to do,’’ he said.

“The horse was favourite, drew an outside barrier, I thought about it all week and I put a lot of pressure on myself. But we got it done.”

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