It might not be obvious to someone walking outside the Mason Springs shedrow in Barn I at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, but it is a consignment in the midst of a sea change.
For Marcus and Crystal Ryan, the past two years have brought with them a new son, a new farm in Aiken S.C., built from the ground up, and new clients. It also brought so many horses.
Mason Springs has 11 horses cataloged for this year's Midlantic sale – by far their biggest consignment to date, and more than double what they brought to the sale in 2021. Once again, it meant change and adjustment, but it also meant reaching new heights personally and professionally.
“It is a totally different thing,” Marcus Ryan said. “We have so many other [employees] to get, and we have been blessed with so many good staff coming in. Everything has worked out right at the right time. To grow sometimes is scary, but it really has been a blessing.”
The 11 horses in the Mason Springs consignment line up perfectly with the company's 11th year in business. The Ryans met in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 2010, both working for different wings of Godolphin's training operation, and when they were both offered the opportunity to gallop horses at Godolphin's Greentree training center in Saratoga, it was an easy “yes” for both. They bought their first horse to pinhook together in 2011.
They later based themselves at Godolphin's Aiken division, and remained in South Carolina after that branch was dissolved. The Ryans decided to stay behind, and try their hand at training and pinhooking young horses.
That foundation of horsemanship picked up under the tutelage of the Godolphin system built the platform of what the Mason Springs training operation hoped to be.
“We pride ourselves in taking it slow and putting a good foundation under a horse,” Ryan said. “We're always putting the horse first, above any sales or any agenda. We do a lot of round pen work, natural horsemanship, desensitizing of horses, and just really making them our friends and getting the best out of them that we can.”
Aiken is arguably North America's second-biggest hub for the breaking and training of young horses, which meant Mason Springs had proven ground and plenty of resources to bring up their charges. However, Marcus said the decision to put roots down in South Carolina came down to something much simpler.
“The appeal of South Carolina was that I met my wife, and she lived in South Carolina, so I moved to South Carolina,” he said. “We love it there. There's good water there, good air. It's a nice lifestyle. That's what appeals about Aiken. There might not be a lot of Thoroughbreds here, but it's a good lifestyle.”
Mason Springs has had roughly 25 horses in training in 2022, between sale horses and ones for clients destined for the racetrack.
Part of the reason for the large consignment in Maryland came down to timing and logistics. The birth of their son Keenan in 2021 made staying closer to home a priority, as was continued work on the new farm, so they decided to focus their entire slate of sale horses on one auction.
The other major factor was an increased investment by Chip Montgomery of Haymarket Farm, boosting the quantity and quality of the stock entering the Ryans' hands.
“He's been instrumental in giving us good advice, and leading us,” Marcus said. “The consignors that we bought these horses from, Bret Jones, put us on to a few of these horses, and Brian DiDonato did some work for us, too. We just have a lot more people around us that are leading us in the right way. It's a big team effort.”
The Ryans condition their horses at the Aiken Training Track, which hosts the annual Aiken Trials; a series of scrimmage-like trial races, consisting primarily of quarter-mile sprints for young 2-year-olds.
The Aiken Trials draw a sizable local audience, and are almost certainly the closest thing to a live-racing scenario the young horses will see prior to their actual on-track career. The Ryans accounted for three of the four horses in this year's Gaver Trophy trial, two of which were cataloged in this year's Midlantic sale.
Hip 178, a Protonico filly out of the stakes-placed Colonel John mare Addibel Lightning, won the practice race with Crystal in the irons, stopping the clock for the quarter-mile in 23 2/5 seconds. Two months later, the filly would breeze one furlong in 10 4/5 seconds at the Midlantic sale, and she sold on Monday to RT Racing for $50,000.
Also in that trial was Hip 406, a Creative Cause colt out of the Grade 3-placed Proud Citizen mare Hold Her Tight who finished fourth at Aiken. The filly worked an eighth in :10 3/5 seconds during the Midlantic sale's under-tack show, and she will go through the ring Tuesday.
Marcus said the Aiken Trials can be useful to “battle-test” an especially precocious horse that might be an early enough type to race in April during Keeneland's spring meet. Where other horses might be used to compete in relative isolation, the graduates of the Aiken Trials will have already run in front of a crowd of thousands.
“We handpicked those two (for the sale) because the owner races, and has them in his partnership, and it was a selling point,” he said. “It was a bit of marketing to present them as fully ready, and if he doesn't get what he wants, the horses are going to have a lot of experience to take to the races. These horses have done what a lot of horses haven't done, and they'll be pretty fit off this.”
This year's Midlantic sale has already seen Mason Springs hit on a strong pinhook with Hip 52, a Jimmy Creed colt the Ryans purchased as a yearling for $45,000 and sold on Monday to Mike McCarty for $155,000.
Though Mason Springs is in a growing phase, Ryan said he was happy with where the consignment sat at the moment in terms of headcount. Change can be a good thing, but staying in place for a while can sometimes be just as positive.
“Last year, we had six horses, and we built it up from four,” he said. “It would be nice to be here and keep it boutique.”
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