Interview: Ryan (AKA Lenny, Mr. Not-So-Evil, Etc.) On New Yorker Domination
Move over, Leo diCaprio, because there’s a new King Of New York.
Ryan took New York by storm last Saturday, when his two colts, Evil Sunrise and The Apocalypse, finished 1-2 in the $1,000,000 Grade 1 New Yorker, the third leg of the Derbyfever’s Triple Crown.
Evil Sunrise wrestled the lead away from early pacesetter Breath Of Fire at the 7-furlong pole in the 1 ½ mile New Yorker this weekend, and he never looked back, giving Ryan his first ever Grade 1 New Yorker winner.
And, really, the only colt who threatened the 2013 New Yorker winner late was Lenny’s other entry in the third leg of the Triple Crown, a colt by the name of The Apocalypse.
For the New York state native who has won almost every big graded race that he‘s wanted to win in the SIM, there have probably been very few graded wins in the SIM that have been more satisfying, and this win for Ryan on Saturday allowed him to scratch the Grade 1 New Yorker off his bucket list of graded races he’d like to win in Derbyfever.
“It was awesome,” said the owner of Lenny271 Stables. “I’ve had a lot of success in this game and have a very small bucket list of races I haven’t yet won that I want to win. The New Yorker was one of them. I’m really glad Evil Sunrise pulled it out. He’s now the best three year old I’ve ever had on dirt. I’m looking forward to seeing if he has any longevity programmed into him.”
It’s been a pretty awesome run through the Triple Crown races for Evil Sunrise, who finished third in the Grade 1 Bluegrass Derby and second in the Grade 1 Middle Jewel Stakes.
And, For Lenny, Evil Sunrise provided the veteran trainer his crowning glory after years of trying to win the Grade 1 New Yorker.
“I have had a lot of luck getting to the Triple Crown races but not actually winning them,” said Ryan after Evil Sunrise had to hold off the late charge of his stable mate The Apocalypse. “I’ve won a handful of Derby lock races and have hit the board a few times. But yesterday marked my second win in the Triple Crown races.”
Lenny’s first Triple Crown race winner came when Folsom Blues took down the 2008 Middle Jewel Stakes. After that, Lenny ran second in the 2007 Bluegrass Derby with Passing Stone and second in the 2007 Grade 1 New Yorker with Severe Warning.
Despite Evil Sunrise’s third and second place finishes in the first two legs of the Triple Crown in 2013, Lenny actually thought going into the race that The Apocalypse would have a better chance at winning the Grade 1 New Yorker this year.
“I don’t watch many races at all,” said Lenny, “but I do watch the big races on the new viewer. Once they broke from the gate I clicked on (iso-view on)The Apocalypse for two reasons. First I thought The Apocalypse was the better of my two horses at 12 furlongs, and the second reason was that I thought he’d be behind Evil Sunrise and I’d be able to watch both of them that way.”
Lenny was right. Evil Sunrise was in third place early in the race, stalking the leaders Breath Of Fire and State Of Zen as those two zipped through some fairly fast early fractions. Meanwhile, The Apocalype, laid about six lengths behind his stablemate.
“It worked,” said Lenny. “I thought he’d catch Evil Sunrise the last furlong, but that guy (Evil Sunrise) showed some grit down the stretch and put up a real nice race.”
Evil Sunrise clocked a pretty speedy 112 speed figure for the 12 furlongs, finishing first with a winning time of 2:29.01. The son of Pivotal beat his stablemate, The Apocalypse by a length at the wire. Ello Guvnor ran on late for third, followed by Parting Skies in fourth and River Jack CB in fifth.
“It was a fast race for sure,” said Lenny. “Once we got down the stretch, even in the new viewer, I was watching the numbers and saw that none of them were making a big move late. So I knew it would be one of my two by the final furlong. That was an awesome feeling.”
Lenny said he really wasn’t sure just how dominating his colt could be in the 12-furlong New Yorker on Saturday, especially after running in the first two legs of the Triple Crown.
“I really wasn’t sure,” said the veteran trainer. “Evil Sunrise is a half to a Travers winner, so the three year old classic pedigree is there. But you never know with three year olds in this game at this level, especially when you’re pushing them so often so early. Some fizzle and are never heard from again after winning the biggest race, and others go on to Sim glory, something much more rare. I knew the winners of the other two legs weren’t there, but I also saw a few newcomers that might be best suited for the ten to 12 furlongs, and so nothing was a certainty. I’m hoping to model this one’s career after my favorite non-Empire horse Awesome Force. He got trounced in the Derby, came back to win the Middle Jewel and the New Yorker, and he went on to run in a total of 4 different Breeders Bowl races.”
Not only did Evil Sunrise run in all three legs of the Triple Crown, but a lot of people didn’t notice that he also had an extremely grueling schedule leading up to the Triple Crown, which made his win in the 12-furlong New Yorker all the more impressive. He started with the Land’s End Stakes, before he took a three-week break leading into the Arkansas Juvenile. After that, Ryan gave his colt a three week break before the Derby. And then came his grueling stretch of three races in five weeks in the Triple Crown.
Ryan’s second place colt on Saturday, The Apocalypse, also did his fair share of hard work before the Grade 1 New Yorker.
“Yeah, I’ve run the heck out of both of these guys.” said Lenny. “Not my normal style. That’s why I think, when I get one I think can compete in the Triple Crown races, I need to push hard because I’m so light on points from the two year old campaigns. I don’t worry about it. My theory with three year old classic runners is shoot if you have the bullets, because you only have one shot at those races with each crop. You can always rest them later. If either of them had faltered, they’d have been given ample time off before I figured out what was next. But they kept running well and giving me the thumbs up icon pretty quickly after their last race, so I knew we were good. As my friend Tony always says ‘What are they going to do, die?’”
Non-American-based sires have had more than their fair share of success in the last two Triple Crown series in 2012 and 2013. Last year, the Japanese-bred Tanino Gimlet colt Ras El Hanout won the Bluegrass Derby. Then, another Tanino Gimlet colt, Gimlet Neat, won the 2013 Bluegrass Derby. And, now, Ryan’s got an English-bred son of Pivotal into the winner’s circle in the Grade 1 New Yorker. And his stablemate, The Apocalypse, is a German-bred son of Monsun.
It’s starting to look more and more like a trend of going to overseas sires is going to be the wave of the future for Triple Crown hopefuls.
But Ryan doesn’t think that it’s so much a case of Pivotal being the key to success for Evil Sunrise this year, and that it was more a case of the dam of Evil Sunrise, the Sadler’s Wells mare, Across The Sunrise, who has now produced her second Grade 1 winner, after she foaled Mr. Fixit two years before Evil Sunrise was born. Mr. Fixit won the 2011 Grade 1Travelers for Ryan.
“I like Pivotal and have had some success with him so far, but the key to Evil Sunrise is the mare. I think the stamina comes from the mare / he-mare more often than not,” said Ryan. “She’s a Sadler’s Wells x Alydar and gave me a Travers winner by Mastercraftsman. I knew going in she’d be more apt to give me a classic distance horse, and I think I chose Pivotal, because the Nureyev x Sadler’s Wells nick really works well in this game in producing routers.”
Ryan thinks the key to producing Triple Crown winners in the game is breeding to mares that have either produced long routers or were at least open allowance winners at 9-12 furlongs themselves.
“The sire isn’t necessarily as important at that point,” Ryan believes. “Scratch-breeding is different, but I don’t breed very many of those any more. If you can find a mare that has produced an allowance/stakes winner at 10F in past, try and find the proper sire to duplicate that success, and you’re off on the right foot. The two year old out of Evil Sunrise‘s dam, a runner called Today We Fight, out of Tapit, is already looking the part. He put up an 89 speed figure so far and is 2-for-2. So, I’m already thinking about a repeat next year.”
Ryan actually thought his second place colt in the New Yorker, The Apocalypse, might have a better shot in this 2013 leg of the Triple Crown, despite the fact that he had never run in a graded stakes before Saturday. In fact, that‘s the reason he thought The Apocalypse might fare better on Saturday, because he didn’t have all that graded stakes wear and tear on him coming into New York this weekend.
“I really thought he was the better of my two entries this week, because his pedigree and mare said 12 furlongs was very capable and because he was only pushed hard in open stakes and not in the grueling Triple Crown races,” said Lenny. “I figured if he could handle the class jump, he’d be very live. I switched him to dirt after a very long layoff, because I figured why not? He’d run pretty badly in those two races, so I moved him to long dirt and he won easily. The only thing I’d make sure of for any two year old is to try them on dirt early. Even the turfiest of pedigrees might like dirt better. So why not find out?”
So, what’s next for Ryan’s first and second place finishers in the longest three year old Grade 1 dirt race in America. Ryan said he wasn’t altogether sure just yet.
“The only thing I know for sure is that Evil Sunrise will get eight or nine weeks rest and a light prep before the Travelers,” said Ryan. “After that who knows? Maybe the Breeders’ Bowl Classic as a target if he looks capable. The Apocalypse? Well, I’m not so sure on. Might try long turf. Might keep going longer on dirt. He’ll probably get a break too and then I’ll figure it out. I’m not against running them together. We’ll see what happens.”