The nation-crossing Cup tour rolled through the picturesque lakeside town – shared with locals, school children and businesses – as the Victoria Racing Club built toward the first Tuesday in November.
Ryan said the Cup visit was a huge morale boost for country towns “with the economy the way it is”. “It’s pretty tough in the bush,” he said. “It’s tougher up there than it is in the city.”
While Nagambie does not have a racetrack, it has a long association with breeding thoroughbreds.
The unbeaten Black Caviar was foaled on its outskirts, on the banks of the Goulburn River at Rick Jamison’s Gilgai Farm, and a statue of the immortal sprinter stands proudly by Lake Nagambie, gazing resolutely down the town’s High Street.
The Melbourne Cup trophy is rested beside Nagambie’s Black Caviar statue.
It is also home to Yulong, the emerging thoroughbred racing and breeding powerhouse owned by Chinese billionaire Yuesheng Zhang, that employs up to 150 people.
Yulong shot to prominence last year when its imposing mare Via Sistina won the Cox Plate in record time and by a record-equalling margin, drawing comparisons with the mighty Winx.
But the Nagambie honour roll did not end there, Ryan said.
The family of former VRC chairman Amanda Elliott, the Bayles, owned nearby Chatsworth Park, a one-time stud that bred 1893 Cup winner Tarcoola and is also the burial ground of 1891 Cup winner Malvolio.
“And then you’ve got the Sangsters,” Ryan said of Nagambie’s Swettenham Stud owner, Adam Sangster, whose father, Robert, won the 1980 Cup with the Colin Hayes-trained Beldale Ball.
“I’m sure I’ve seen the Cup on his bar when I’ve had a drink with him.”
Long before the Cup tour arrived on Monday, Ryan had given the town a multimillion-dollar boost.
He bought Mitchelton Winery, created Nagambie Brewery and Distillery, and opened a satellite Jayco factory to build portable homes. The businesses employ 250 people.
Gerry Ryan helped reinvigorate Mitchelton Winery at Nagambie.Credit: Joe Armao
“They were very suspicious of me when I first started,” Ryan said of his association with the town. “I went up there basically to find a farm to breed a couple of horses, and I saw some opportunities.
“The winery was going to be sold off overseas, they approached me to see if I would buy it, and so one thing led to another … and suddenly we have a group of companies up there.”
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In between making Nagambie his part-time base, driving 120km up the Goulburn Valley Highway for the past 20 years to spend four days at his new home every second week, Ryan landed three Melbourne Cups – the first with Americain in 2010.
“I was also fortunate enough to be invited in with Lloyd and Nick Williams in Rekindling (2017) and Twilight Payment (2020), which has been a great ride,” he said.
Ryan’s love of the sport blossomed as a boy.
He would sneak into the Bendigo races at about the same age as the primary school kids of Nagambie who broke out of class on Monday to catch a glimpse of the Cup.
“Everyone used to tune in on the first Tuesday of November,” Ryan said of his childhood.
“We listened on the radio, and my Dad would have a punt and my mother would put 50 cents on back then, and being Irish, third generation, you always had an interest in horses.
“I was ambitious to win a Bendigo Cup, let alone ever thinking I would have a horse to run in the Melbourne Cup, let alone win one.”
He said that joy, of sharing those victories with family and friends, kept him going back for more.
“Unfortunately, you have that first drink of wine and you get the taste for it,” Ryan said.
“You always are hopeful that a yearling or the unbroken yearling in the paddock is going to be the one. Or the one you buy from overseas could win it.”
That “one” from overseas arrived in Australia in 2010 – a French-bred stallion plucked out of America for $200,000.
Americain wins the 2010 Melbourne Cup for jockey Gerald Mosse and trainer Alain de Royer-Dupré.Credit: Photo: Pat Scala
“I had this guy that lived in Ireland, he was a bloodstock agent, and he had looked around for years for different horses and broodmares and he rang up and said, ‘I’ve got this horse, I think he can win the Melbourne Cup. He’s in America’,” Ryan said.
The horse in America had been floundering on the hot dog-shaped circuits of the US, but flourished when he returned to the bigger tracks of Europe and later made the trip to Australia under the care of trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre.
He won the Geelong Cup as a lead-in race and then thundered home out wide down a rain-soaked Flemington straight, streaming past favourite So You Think, to deliver Ryan, his wife Val and their friends Kevin and Colleen Bamford a famous victory.
“I had the Middle Park Hotel at the time and we celebrated there and it was passed around the bar and people were drinking out of it and taking photographs. It certainly was pretty special,” Ryan said.
This year’s Melbourne Cup nominations were released on September 2, and while mega-stables Chris Waller and Ciaron Maher train a third of the 120 nominations, two horses in the fight are part-owned by Ryan.
He has again joined forces with Lloyd and Nick Williams, who sourced accomplished stayers Adelaide River and Changingoftheguard from Ireland.
Changingoftheguard has already landed an early spring blow, winning the listed 2400-metre City Tattersalls Club Cup at Randwick on Saturday.
“Lloyd’s the best judge and he’s got the best connections around the world,” Ryan said of the seven-time Melbourne Cup-winning owner.
So can Ryan take his tally to four?
“I always say, ‘focus on the process and the results will look after themselves’,” he said.
“You’ve got to enjoy it because there’s no guarantee that one, they stay sound, or two, they get to the race.”
Neither does he worry about the cost.
“Put it this way, I don’t think I am in front after winning three of them,” he said.
While Ryan expected to soon start sharing one of his own Cups around Nagambie in the lead-up to the spring carnival, there was another trophy he still dreamed of celebrating.
“Hopefully, St Kilda can win a grand final next year or the year after. They are heading that way,” he said.
“And I can then take a premiership cup to lunch with Eddie and hopefully, he might get a Melbourne Cup winner.”
