The Hill Stakes

by Jessica Owers

Keysbrook trainer Ryan Hill is just two years into his training gig after hanging up his riding boots in Western Australia, but already he is one of the emerging forces of the Perth sale ring. He tells Jessica Owers it’s been the best of starts.

According to Bob Marley, the day you stop racing is the day you win the race, and for Englishman Ryan Hill, fiercely bearded and slightly built, that day came when he gave up the ghost of professional riding

For a decade, Hill had climbed the rigging of Perth’s jockey ranks, riding 479 winners, until late 2021 when he’d had enough The wasting was too much and his mind had caught up with his body; he would train racehorses instead

Less than a fortnight later he was back at the races with his first runner, a Blackfriars gelding that would later invite a suspension for being uncompetitive But that’s racing, Ryan Hill will tell you, a man who also thought he’d have eight to 10 horses in full-time work at his peak Today, just two years into the game, he has up to 40

“I wasn’t expecting that,” he says “I thought floating around with maybe eight to 10 horses would be cool for a few years, keeping my toe in the water But then we went to the sales and bought a couple, and then to the winter sale where we bought a heap of weanlings When the numbers got into the twenties it was getting a bit serious, and then I was a bit shocked when we hit 30 to 40 in work ”

For 34-year-old Hill, shock doesn’t arrive in the form of hysteria He’s a calm, patient type who doesn’t easily fly off the handle

“I don’t get stressed at all,” he says “I’ve been in racing long enough to know there are ups and there are downs, and, to be honest, it has helped that things have got off to a pretty good start for me I’m lucky that the support has been incredible.”

Hill arrived on the west coast in 2008 from the Isle of Sheppey, southeast of London in the well-to-do county of Kent His parents were racing enthusiasts and, growing up, Hill was light enough to begin race riding after a childhood in show jumping and eventing

He enrolled in the British Racing School where he learned the formative tools of the trade and, after a brief tenure with English trainers John Best and Peter Grayson, he snatched a temporary opportunity to ride work at Lark Hill in Western Australia That was in 2008, but it took the then 19-year-old two years before he could ride licensed in Perth

In between, he was watched by casual racegoers in the eventing scene, earning kudos for his abilities to sit the difficult ones Hill had a good seat and wilful patience, which helped coast him to the champion apprentice title by 2011/2012

But none of this had been his intention when arriving in Australia in 2008 He’d come for the sun, and it was largely because of the sun that he never left

“When you grow up in England, you come to appreciate the good weather,” he says “I was over there, freezing cold, and I came here and just fell in love with the place There is so much opportunity in Perth if you’re willing to work hard In England, you could ride four

horses of a morning and that was it, but I went to the Lark Hill track on my first morning and I think I rode 12 It was brilliant money for a young fella trying to make his way ”

At Keysbrook, a little way south of Perth, Hill is set up on two neighbouring properties One is owned by his loyal supporter, former oil and gas engineering businessman Mick Wilson, who bought the set-up that once belonged to Impressive Racing Hill has a staff of seven alongside his partner, jockey Victoria Corver, and the pair oversees much of the operation together, including trackwork, racedays and pre-training for the likes of Neville Parnham

“I’m best friends with the Parnhams, so Brad obviously rides the majority of our horses and he’s very good,” Hill says, albeit the Parnhams are just one of the Perth families that has come to the Hill table Stephen (SJ) Miller is another

“I went around my early sales with SJ Miller, and then with Neville Parnham,” Hill says “They’re two very good trainers that buy different types of horses and I wanted to see what they looked for at the sales ”

Hill admits to being a freshman He’s ready to learn, but for an ex-pat just two years into holding a trainer’s ticket, he’s made some good friends His relationship with Mick Wilson is a good example, that alliance blooming from his riding days with Vernon Brockman

“Mick kept a few horses with Vernon and when he sold his business, he wanted to get heavily involved,” Hill says “We went to the sales to buy a couple last year and we ended up with a few more than that, but it proved a good thing That’s when we bought the Playing God-Poverty Point filly and the other one from Coast To The Post ”

Both horses were yearling fillies at the 2023 Magic Millions Perth Yearling Sale, both inside the top 10 results by price and two of the eight that Ryan Hill Racing bought overall for a total spend of just shy of $1 million Hill ended up third-top buyer of the sale when, at his first throw at the stumps in 2022, he had bought just one

“I’d been around horses all my life, but the sales were a different kettle of fish,” he says “I was definitely under-prepared for my first one (in 2022), even though I ended up getting a very useful horse from that, Guarding Heaven At last year’s sale I was a lot more prepared ”

I’d been around horses all my life, but the sales were a different kettle of fish

Of the $890,000 that Hill spent at the 2023 Perth Yearling Sale, Mick Wilson went in for about $800,000 of that He is the operation’s heaviest supporter, and he says it’s Hill’s work ethic that impresses him most In Western Australia, hard work is a good measure of character

“Ryan is up at 2.30 in the morning and he still rides most of the horses,” Wilson says “That he still rides and he’s training them is something that I value, particularly because the majority of them are two-year-olds We’ve both got skin in the game ”

Wilson has been in racing since 2014 and is involved in one way or another with about 25 racehorses He’s been a buyer for the last five years, and his support of Ryan Hill Racing has propped up the new trainer in very formative stages

“But it goes both ways,” Wilson says “I can see Ryan’s potential and I always wanted to have my own farm, and now I’ve done that and, to be honest, I’m really looking forward to what’s ahead ”

Ryan Hill with Mick Wilson

Hill is pushing 16 years in Western Australia He feels like a ‘west coaster’, with even his Kent accent disappearing behind an emerging local brogue For racing, he cuts a young, upcoming figure in a state that seems to embrace and back-in its future talent

“You only have to consider that Lyn Sayers (of Yarradale Stud) jumped straight in to the first horse I bought at the sales (Guarding Heaven),” Ryan says “For someone like that to get behind you right off the bat, it’s a huge plus and it really does help ”

I was definitely under-prepared for my first one (in 2022).

Ahead of the 2024 Perth Yearling Sale, Hill is prepared and freshly educated He has bored Victoria Corver senseless with his repetitive digestion of yearling videos, and he’s been on the farms and on the phone, eyeing off what’s ahead in the Swan Valley sale ring He’s learned that being ringside as a rider is one thing, and quite another being around it as a trainer

“You’re responsible for that horse and that money,” he says, while admitting that he’s also a lot more tuned into type over page these days “Vernon Brockman told me one thing He said everyone can read, but not everyone is going to have the same eye I thought it was a very important bit of advice to give me.”