BRYAN GUY HAPPILY HEADING FOR RETIREMENT

By Graham Potter | Thursday, February 3, 2022

Bryan Guy has a smile on his face when he talks about his upcoming retirement.

Guy, who has been a fixture at the racetrack since his father organised that he granted special permission to ride work at Rosehill as a thirteen-year-old, will end 54 years of formal involvement in the industry when he sends out his last runners at his home base at the Gold Coast on Saturday.

The tired and tested, ‘the time is right’ is a description that can cover a variety of reasons for a decision being made. In Guy’s case doubtless many factors … racing related and otherwise … would have been taken into account but, after considering retirement for some time, the stars outwardly did align when an offer was made to purchase Guy’s property at the Gold Coast.

“I had thought about it for a long time,” confirmed Guy. “We decided to sell our property. People came in and offered us good money … and I thought, well, this is a sign that it might be the time to give it up and go and enjoy life a bit.

“Of course, it will be a big adjustment. Racing has my life. It has been a great time.

“There have been a lots of ups and downs, but I see it as having been more ups than downs.”

The highlights of Guy’s training career, to mention a few, include the win of Ravarda in the 1996 George Ryder Stakes, All Our Mob’s success in the 1994 Stradbroke Handicap and, of course, Eagle Way in the 2016 Queensland Derby … Guy’s last Group 1 winner.

“It’s hard enough to get a good horse anytime and to win any Group 1 is a thrill, but the best feeling of all as a trainer is getting a horse right from the beginning and taking it all the way through to a Group 1 win. That is so satisfying.”

The rain interrupted the Guy grand finale week yesterday when the meeting at Ipswich had to be abandoned after only one race following storm activity, but Guy has a number of runners nominated for the Gold Coast on Saturday where the possible scenario exists that he could sign off his training career in an absolutely most appropriate fashion.

That would mean going out with a winner of course … but the story could well have an important attachment to it if a horse called Hodgson comes back a winner in the last race on the card.

Hodgson races in the colours of the Moore family … the same colours that Eagle Way carried to victory in the Queensland Oaks.

The association between the Guy and Moore families … who are very good friends … goes back a very long way and it would be oh so fitting if Hodgson, a horse that only recently relocated from John Moore to the Guy Training Partnership yard after Moore himself gave up training, could give Guy his final winner.

Interestingly enough, Guy did claim his first winner as a trainer with his first runner all of those years ago. A winner with his last runner would just put a very pleasing exclamation mark on the last word in the final chapter of his training career.

Either way, Guy will leave the training ranks with a record of which he can be very proud … both in his results he has achieved on the track and in exemplary way in which he has conducted himself throughout on a personal level.

*Daniel Guy, who has been involved in a training partnership with his father for the past six years will also step away from his role. Daniel was an integral part of the Guy stable long before that having worked for his father all of eighteen years before the training partnership was established. Neither Bryan nor Daniel have made any firm decision on their future plans.

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