Image © Healy Racing
Twenty-one-year-old Brian Barry, who hails from Conna in County Cork, landed the concluding six-year-old and upwards contest on the card at Borris House aboard the Riceal Dunne-trained Slieve Annilog.
The Stylebawn Syndicate-owned six-year-old Slieve Annilog was vindicating the promise he showed on his previous outing at Aghabullogue in January when he was placed fourth with Brian’s older brother John in the plate.
Plans for the son of Mount Nelson are fluid, a maiden hurdle may be on the cards, but Barry said: “He jumped and travelled excellent throughout and he’s a really nice horse who done it well, it was pretty straightforward. He has plenty of gears and I think he will be better on the track”.
“I was very fortunate to get the ride, it should have been my brother John riding him as he has been doing all the schooling in Riceal’s whilst I have been away, but he had to ride in Ballindenisk so it worked out well for me.”
Barry who has around 30 pony racing wins under his belt was riding his seventh career winner between the flags.
Barry hadn’t been seen in action at a point-to-point since Nenagh in mid-February as he flew out to Pennsylvania the following week, where he worked for Leslie Young until mid-May, when a back injury forced him to return home to recuperate.
“I got the job with Leslie Young through a couple of people. Brian Lawless is friends with her and she had mentioned she was looking for a rider to come over and join her, and then I was schooling for Cormac Doyle one day and he was kind enough to put me in contact with her. So it was between the both of them that I got the job".
“It wasn’t really a tough decision for me to go over there. Things were quiet enough, I was getting a few spins, but not a massive amount. I wasn’t attached to any one stable, I was riding out for a number of people so had no job to leave as such”.
“I just though why not, it was too good of an opportunity to miss out on. It made sense to go and try something different”.
“It worked out for me, I got great experience and some winners”.
After riding a winner for Leslie Young aboard Codigo in the third race on the card at Willowdale in May, Barry suffered a bad fall in the last race of the day where he broke six vertebrae in his back.
“I was stuck on the sidelines and couldn’t really do anything so I came home to recover. I wasn’t able to work or anything so just stayed about home and kept myself busy reading books etc.”
When Barry was fully recovered he went back Stateside in mid-September and was riding there right up until last Saturday.
“When I was recovered, I gave Leslie a call, but she had enough jockeys by that stage. She put me in touch with another trainer called Neil Morris who was based in Virginia, and I got a job with him”.
“Riding in the states is very different from here. I was riding out about ten horses every day on a flat track. Everything is timed so I learned to ride work on the clock, counting the time between each of the furlong poles. Its’s all about pace”.
“In races the pace is much quicker. Most races are over a shorter distance than points and on generally better ground, but everything happens much quicker and earlier in the races. You can’t giveaway too much ground at any point. Not many horses come from the rear to win over there”.
“I learned an awful lot during my time there and rode four track winners then a good amount of what they call ‘training flat races’ and point -to-points”.
“I won a nice handicap hurdle worth $35,000 and I was placed in a big stakes race worth $75,000 three weeks ago. I rode in some relatively big races”.
“I was riding with some good jockey’s too. Paddy O’Hanlon, who won the Irish Grand National, was over there riding for the spring and autumn and top English jockeys Graham Watters and Jamie Baragry were over there too”.
“The season is finished over there until March so I decided to come home and ride in points for the meantime”.
“I will go back to the states at some point in the future, I’m in the very early stages of applying for a visa.”
This is not the first time that Barry has spent time abroad gaining experience. In 2020 at the age of just 17 he spent a summer in France with Francois Nicolle and returned in the summer of 2022 to work for Guillaume Macaire, whom he had three track rides for.
“I only arrived back home from the states last Tuesday, but the plan is to spread myself as much as possible and ride for as many people as I can.”
