Places You Dont found the place to win
The Ryan family invaded Globe Derby Park on Saturday and came away with the $25,000 Kevin & Kay Seymour Featureb (2230m).
Places You Don’t ($6), trained by Toby Ryan and driven by his wife Lisa, dashed up the sprint lane to win the Feature by a neck from John Vincent ($5) with its stablemate Lochinvar Magic ($2.80 fav) a long neck away third.
Trainer Toby Ryan said he could not remember having a bigger support team at a race meeting.
His parents Peter and Sue, brother Ned and sister Lucy, along with four nieces and nephews were on course to cheer home Places You Don’t. To add to the Ryan team was Toby and Lisa’s son Wyatt who was down from Darwin with his fiancée Lillie.
“Globe Derby is actually a place you don’t for the family,” Ryan said.
“Lisa and I hosted the Christmas Day dinner at our new Kapunda property, so it was a good chance for Ned and his family to come across from Victoria and for Lucy and her family to come up from Payneham.
“We had a few ponies at our place, and the kids loved them and didn’t want to leave. So what had begun as a one day get together ended up stretching to three days and they all decided to head to the trots – that has never happened.
“They loved it and with Places You Don’t winning it topped off the night.”
To complete the family story, Places You Don’t was also bred and is owned by Toby Ryan.
Winning driver Lisa Ryan said she nearly had made the wrong call in the final.
“We also had Alora in the Seymour Feature and I love her,” Ryan said.
“When the draw came out with Places You Don’t in one and Alora in six, Toby asked which one I wanted to drive and I said Alora.
“Toby repeated the draws and asked again, and I changed my mind.
“Barrier draws mean so much and there is no doubt gate one was a key tonight.
“She travelled beautifully in the run, and my only concern was that the leader, Tonkawaikon, would get me to the sprint lane and fortunately it did.
“Places You Dont has a very good sprint, and she dashed through to win well.”
Toby Ryan said he did not like to turn horses out when they were in form so he would likely keep the winner in training searching for suitable races.
It was a case of “catch me if you can” and they couldn’t with two-year-old trotter Ideology in the 2026 $9999 SA Square Trotters Association 2YO Parker Classic (1800m).
Trained and driven by SA’s premier trainer Ryan Hryhorec, Ideology ($3.90) led by as much as 40 metres for much of the race.
He got a little tired in the home straight but won by 7-1/2 metres from Jilliby Bliss ($2.15 fav) which made up good ground, with Voucher Queen ($8), 29 metres away third.
“When he got away so well I wasn’t going to wait for them,” Hryhorec said.
“Setting up a big lead over 1800 metres meant he was always going to be hard to catch.
“I have only given him a few tries from the stand, and he did surprise me going away as well as he did.
“He can now go for a spell with three wins from four starts and hopefully come back bigger and stronger.”
The Ideology story goes back to the former star SA trotter C K Spur.
“He was owned by the Five540 Racing Syndicate, managed by Chris Harvey, and won a free service to the Aldebaran Park Stud stallion Skyvalley.
“The boys didn’t have a broodmare but after talking with Duncan McPherson from Aldebaran Park they ended up with a mare with a foal at foot and she was mated with Skyvalley.
“That mare was Aldebaran Crumpet, the foal was Ideology, and the mare now has a filly foal by Skyvalley.
Hryhorec trained three winners at Globe Derby Park to take his season tally to 147, but also had three seconds, two in photo finishes.
He has enough runners at Victor Harbor to make it to the 150 in SA but admits it would be a struggle.
“We have also had three winners at Mildura this year so nationally, we reached the 150 on Saturday.
“It would be amazing if we could reach it locally, but I am more than happy with the season.
“I think the most prizemoney horses had won for our owners was about $460,000, and this year we are in excess of $770,000 suggesting we are winning the right races.”
Hryhorec’s other winners on Saturday were Torque Intheusa in the Ray White Commercial Adelaide Pace (1800m), and Peace Of Heaven in the Ladbrokes Blackbook SA Concession Drivers Pace (1800m).
Hryhorec said Torque Intheusa would run on Tuesday at Mildura in an attempt to win her Vicbred bonus.
- Story Graham Fischer
- Photo Walter Bulyga