LONGFORD trainer Bill Ryan has no qualms in admitting he “stole” his recent Mowbray winner Final Verdict from the gelding’s breeder Robyn Wishaw of Armidale Stud.
Final Verdict scored impressively in a maiden over 1400 metres last Sunday, coming from well back in the field to defeat Eden Hills by 1-1/2 lengths with outsider Uncommon Brom over two lengths away third.
Final Verdict was a part of a package trainer Bill Ryan picked up at an Armidale Stud dispersal sale.
Two years ago Ryan had only one foal on his property so his wife Mary suggested he head to Armidale that had a dispersal sale on at the time and that he should try and buy a mate to keep the foal at home company in the paddock.
Instead he ended up with two mares in foal and with foals at foot that cost the total sum of $2000 and Final Verdict was one of the foals at foot (Savoir Vivre-False Alibi).
“In this game finding a good horse can often come down to being in the right place at the right time and that is certainly the case with Final Verdict,” Ryan said.
“I robbed Robyn (Whishaw) blind, there’s no doubt about it but she was in a position where she had to sell them and I was lucky enough to be looking at them when they came on the market,” he said.
Ryan says Final Verdict’s two-year-old full sister that the mare was carrying at the time also shows a lot of promise.
“The foal False Alibi was carrying when we bought her is named On Suspicion and she is a lovely type that we expect will do well when she races.”
Final Verdict has an older half-brother by West Quest that was sold at the Tasmanian yearling sale to Queenslanders who put him through the Ready to Run sale in that state and was on-sold to Hong Kong for $100,000
The gelding was named True Alibi but races in Honk Kong as Winning Strategy and while he hasn’t won a race he has earned just over $100,000 in prize money.