Ryan itching for return ahead of Champions Weekend Gavin Ryan is looking forward to competing at Irish Champions Weekend after a breakthrough season which has seen him crowned leading jockey at Galway and also ride his first stakes winner. The rising star is apprenticed to trainer Donnacha O'Brien but has been in high demand with a host of trainers this year and currently sits fifth in the jockeys table with 32 winners. Five of those successes came on a memorable week at Galway while Shale gave him his first Group 3 winner when taking the Silver Flash Stakes at Leopardstown for his boss last month. Ryan is currently serving a five-day careless riding ban picked up at a Killarney and is itching to get back in action ahead of next weekend's action. “We've a big weekend coming up with Champions Weeekend and I'll be trying my best to get a few winners in after I get back on Wednesday. “It wasn't ideal the time that the suspension came but these things happen and I just have to try and not let it happen again. “I'm looking forward to getting back racing and hopefully can pick up where I left off. “I set out this year hoping to get two premier handicap winners and give the apprentice title a bit of a rattle. “So far I've had three premier handicaps, a group winner and a listed winner and we're having a good go at the apprentice title so it's a lot more than I expected. “I'm enjoying it and once you get that success you are always going to be looking for a bit more. I'm after setting new goals now and will try to improve going forward. “To be leading rider in Galway was massive and it would be a major highlight this season. “In terms of one success winning the Silver Flash on Shale for Donnacha, and for Mr Smith, Mr Tabor and Mr Magnier was surreal really. “I won a maiden on her at Gowran and to be allowed to keep the ride in a Group 3 was great. Then to go out and win was surreal really. That was a great milestone to reach. “Big thanks to everyone who let me have the opportunity and it was definitely a big standout moment. “Donnacha is a great mentor, a great person, and as well as that he's a great boss. He's very easy to deal with and very easy to ride for. I love working down there and we have a great team of lads.” As well as carrying the colours of the Coolmore team Ryan has also been in high demand for several trainers around the country and has partnered winners for high profile owners like the Aga Khan, Juddmonte and Hamdan Al Maktoum. “When you start riding it's only dreams, as they would have been the colours you would have grown up watching on the telly on the big days. “To be able to ride in those colours is unbelievable let alone ride winners in them and to get to ride in the Coolmore colours on a regular based is surreal. “You have to pinch yourself and I'm delighted to get loads of opportunities.” Ryan will also be cheering on Donnacha O'Brien's stable-star Fancy Blue this weekend and has a close connection with the Deep Impact filly as he rides her out at home. “She is the stable star, a filly with a big engine, and she's maybe unlucky not to have three Group 1s this season as she finished second in the Guineas on her first start of the season. “I think she has improved with every run and the more racing she gets the better she'd be. She's very tough. “Going into Champions Weekend she'll be going in in top form so hopefully she can run a big race. “She was probably always going to be more of a three-year-old than a two-year-old and for her to win twice as a two-year-old just showed her sheer class. “This year her first run in the Guineas was very promising and when she stepped up in trip she looked even better again. “She's a big filly, plenty of bone, and is a good strong powerful unit. She's a very nice filly to be involved with. “She's a filly that's bred for a mile-and-a-half up really but she has so much class that she was able to be second in a Guineas and when she was stepped up in trip she got off the mark in Group 1 company and then followed up in the Nassau. “She has so much class that I don't think ground or trip is really an issue, she just seems to manage it.”
