WHEN PATRICK Ryan wins a race the people who are the most excited to see a horse trained by him salute is his two sons.
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Boogie Woogie got the Warrnambool-based trainer's TAB May Racing Carnival underway with a victory in the Warrnambool Greyhound Racing Club Maiden Plate on Wednesday.
The four-year-old passed the post 2.5 lengths ahead of fellow south-west-trained horses in Ciaron Maher and David Eustace's Scarface Romeo and Symon Wilde's Sweetgeorgia Brown, who was a further length behind.
Ryan's sons Darby, 7, and Owen, 4, now know their father owes them a trip to the toy store following the victory.
"They are always excited as they are promised a present when I get a winner so they are straight to the toy shop and they are picking something out," he said.
"The youngest he loves it and his always on a Sunday morning ready to go to swim the horses and come down to the beach and he is really involved so hopefully he will have an administrative role and not as a jockey."
Ryan, who becomes the seventh local trainer to secure a victory at this year's carnival, was pleased with the victory and praised the ride of jockey Fred Kersley.
"I thought I had a couple of good chances yesterday and they were very unlucky I was hoping it wasn't going to be one of those weeks were anything would not go right," he said.
"But he was my only runner today and I thought he was the best for the carnival so it's good to see him win.
"I said to Fred he is only going to pull you into the ground if you try to hold him so if he wants to go just let him go and he will straighten up five in front and hope he can keep running. He was brilliant."
Ryan said Boogie Woogie proved to be an excellent find for his stable.
"I bought him from New Zealand and they said he could be a little bit of a handful but I didn't realise what a handful he could be," he said.
"He is the type of horse I go for as he has head issues and I'd get him right on the beach and he is one of the ones who is worse on the beach and you have to pamper to him and he is really hard work.
"But when you take his heart rate, lactates and things like that he just has such a great engine that I knew if we got him out over a trip he would be a decent sort of animal."
Kersley was impressed by Boogie Woogie's talents and credited the people within the racing industry .
"He does have a few tricks," the 19-year-old said. "They do a lot with him, he is a handful. We all work together and that's the beauty of horse racing."
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