‘I’ve always wanted to be a trainer’ – Maher graduate Liam Ruddy joins NSW training ranks
The latest young trainer to emerge from the Ciaron Maher system stepped out this week when former racing manager Liam Ruddy was granted his trainer’s licence, with the 25-year-old set to saddle his first runner on Sunday.
The Scottish expat, who left the Maher operation in early November, told ANZ News that training had always been his ambition and that the success of several recent stable alumni gave him the confidence to make the leap.
“I’ve always wanted to be a trainer,” Ruddy said. “I didn’t know if I’d be younger or older starting out, but realistically, it’s always going to be pretty hard to start in today’s age.
“I felt it was the right time coming out of Ciaron’s. I had a good job and I was thinking about where to go from there. Ciaron is the biggest pusher of young trainers. Jack Bruce, Annabel Neasham, Lucy Yeomans…he’s had a lot of good trainers in the last few years come out of the stable and I thought: ‘Why can’t I be next?’”
Ruddy made the decision to set up Ruddy Racing backed by a profitable result as a vendor at the recent Inglis Ready2Race sale, where he and Cade Hunter’s seven-lot debut draft as Hunters Lodge realised $1.3 million, headed by a son of Toronado (High Chaparral) that topped the auction when selling for $900,000.
“I got a bit of a kick along with the breeze-up sale; that’s helped out,” he said. “I might as well do the hard yards now and if it goes the right way, in ten to 15 years we can start reaping some rewards.”
Having spent time breaking for top trainers like Chris Waller and Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott upon coming to Australia, Ruddy gained his role as Maher’s racing manager at the age of 22, which he said gave him invaluable experience with the more strategic elements of training.
“I did all the jockey bookings, nominations, acceptances, race planning etc. You’d be across every horse in New South Wales and to some degree know what work and trials they’re all up to. It’s a very strategic role,” he said.
“I was always of the opinion that you can be the best trainer in the world, but if you can’t put them in the right race you’re going to struggle. I wanted to get more into race planning and understanding handicapping because when you’re on your own, if you get the form right and find the right race, you can get less talented horses winning races.”
Already well-versed with the selection process for Hunters Lodge, Ruddy has been busy on the hunt for horses to build on the eight individuals he currently trains out of his Scone base of Dartbrook Downs. Last Wednesday he purchased his latest addition – Peace Centre (Written Tycoon), a three-time winner from just seven starts – for $50,000 via Inglis Digital, with that gelding set to become the stable’s first runner at Gosford on Sunday.
“I’m buying horses left, right and centre,” he said. “I’m trying to get a wide array of horses for different people to get into. I will be at all the yearling sales [next year]. I’ll probably spec two yearlings for my training business, and the rest will be tried horses we’ll focus on getting to bring out to this area and hopefully get some wins on the board quickly.”
Aside from his training business, Ruddy said the newly formed Hunters Lodge partnership will continue with the same formula, with Wyong trainer Sara Ryan set to remain key to the process.
“I’ll select Hunters Lodge’s purchases again next year,” he said. “We’ll purchase eight yearlings across the catalogues and probably take shares in a few more to try to put together a draft of ten to 12 horses [for the Inglis Ready2Race Sale]. That business will definitely continue.
“My facilities will be open to Hunters Lodge – they will complement the system – but I’m not changing the Hunters Lodge formula. It couldn’t have produced better results this year.”
Ruddy believes his training operation is already equipped to compete well above its weight, with a purpose-built base that mirrors the standards of far larger establishments.
“Our facilities are top notch, you wouldn’t find better outside of Sydney,” he said. “The horses are all trained from yards and they’ve got stables attached. So they live 90 per cent of the time in the yards and if they need putting away, we can put them in the stables.
“The track is a proper deep sand, it’s 1000 metres round, and we’ve got 250 sprinklers on it. It’s a really intelligent track; you can make it the beach if you want it to be or you can pump the water onto it and roll it and make it a quicker surface and a little less testing for young ones.
“We have a high-speed treadmill, a 14-horse barn, a water walker, and brand new spelling paddocks posted with steel rail, so there’s no expense spared.”
Ruddy also sees location as one of his biggest advantages, with his base aligned to the rapidly developing Scone Race Club precinct. He said the club’s significant investment in infrastructure is creating a metropolitan-standard training environment which offers young and high-end horses the ideal platform to rebuild or progress.
“I’m also approved at Scone Race Club, who’ve got a brand new polytrack opening next week which cost around $3 million,” he said. “I think they’re building another 400 stables at the club in the next two years – it’s probably the biggest spending club in the country right now.
“It’s a metropolitan facility in the country. It’s really built for metropolitan-owned horses. It gives an expensive purchase that’s maybe not quite handled the city or had an issue a second chance.
“It’s a real credit to the CEO Jason Hill and the board that they’ve been able to get that done. They’ve been very accommodating and Jason has been extremely helpful with Racing NSW and making sure all the day-to-day stuff ran smoothly.”
The farm’s location also gives Ruddy the flexibility to target major metropolitan and interstate races with ease.
“It’s very worthwhile knowing we’re only three and a half hours out of Sydney, not ten,” he said. “It’s not a big deal to get to Randwick on a Saturday, and that’s where I want to get us going.
“Ciaron was the ultimate professional when I travelled horses interstate for him, he probably does it better than any other trainer. In Queensland he travels them nine hours on a Wednesday to run on a Saturday and they run at the very top level. I’ve also got some really good connections in Brisbane. We’re seven hours from Declan Maher’s stable and we can fire them up there any time. We could send them up on a Wednesday to run on a Saturday and they’d be A1.”
With his licence freshly secured, Ruddy is already thinking about expansion and is modelling his long-term structure on the system he knows best – one built around a central training hub supported by a metropolitan base.
“I’ll make the decision when we get [50 boxes] full – which hopefully doesn’t take too long – whether we take a stable in Scone or try to go towards Sydney. The model I’m trying to follow is Ciaron’s because that’s what I know. Ballarat is what he calls ‘the hub’, so I hope my farm will be the hub, and I can get a stable in town, whether provincial or in the city.
“That’s the two-three-year ambition. Quick growth in Australia is the way forward: there’s heaps of prize-money.”
Jen Butler and Barry McDonald’s Dartbrook Downs property has a long history of being supported by major players and that trend is continuing with the likes of the Archibalds, Michael Freedman, Yarraman Park and Segenhoe already sending Ruddy horses for pre-training.
“I’ve built these relationships over the years with a few good clients,” Ruddy said. “The top stables are sending their horses, so we’ll look to keep them coming and build the training side of the business with time.”
A milestone was marked on Tuesday when the lightly raced Glenbower (Churchill) became the stable’s first trial runner at Wyong, with the five-year-old running fifth. The gelding has been through the systems of both Anthony Cummings and Ciaron Maher but battled soundness issues, and Ruddy is hopeful he is finally ready to deliver on his early promise.
“He’s got heaps of ability; I’ve trained him from the paddock, his owners have given him a good break,” Ruddy said.
“Joe Motherway bred the horse, Russel Barwick is in him, and they’ve spent plenty of time and money persevering with him and hopefully this is the prep we can reward them. They took a bit of a punt on a young bloke. They gave the horse to me when I was pre-training him with no licence, and sweated the way along with me, but the horse galloped on Tuesday and, touch wood, I think he’s going very well.”
Ruddy is clear about the reputation he wants to build as he steps into the training ranks.
“My biggest thing, I want to be known as a realist. I want to be a straight-shooter with clients about what we can do with a horse. It’s all about meeting the client’s expectations and goals,” he said.
“Not every horse is destined to be a good two-year-old. In saying that, there are a lot that are, we breed plenty in Australia. There’s a real middle ground to be found. There’s no two ways about it, people spend a lot of money and for many it’s a business, so we want to be open and honest.”
Reflecting on his career progression to date, Ruddy is quick to acknowledge the support from his partner Emily Kelly, who is assistant trainer to the Archibalds overseeing their Scone operation.
“She’s a massive driving force,” he said. “She’s not afraid to say when she thinks what I’m doing is wrong. She’s not on the licence, but she’s just as big a part as I am – that’s why it’s Ruddy Racing and not Liam Ruddy Racing.”
On a wider scale, he is under no illusions about how pivotal the Australian industry has been, saying that the country’s racing ecosystem – and its willingness to back youth – has been transformative in ways that wouldn’t have been possible had he stayed in the UK.
“I got very lucky in this industry, that’s for sure. It’s been very very good to me so far. If I was in the UK I would not be training horses right now. In England it’s very hard to get going. I wouldn’t have got a racing manager job at a major stable at 22 – that’s unheard of in England,” he said.
“I probably wouldn’t have achieved a breeze-up result like the one at Inglis – I wouldn’t have been given the finance to buy the horses. Unless I had some wealthy friends over there to buy the horses with me, there wouldn’t be any horses in my stable.
“The support from the sales companies here has been unbelievable. They take a punt on young people. It’s not a bank loan, the best way to describe it is Dragon’s Den: you give your proposal, have the harsh conversations and if you come out the other end, you get your investment. The opportunity is there if you want to work for it in Australia.”
For enquiries about horses available for investment or partnership, contact Ruddy Racing at liam@ruddyracing.com.au or 0467 882 708.