Tasmanian trainer Bill Ryan was recently told by his doctors that his illness is now terminal, but he hopes his mare Still A Star will provide a swansong for him in The All-Star Mile, reports racing.com.
“I’m getting towards the end of my training career and this would be my last chance to roll the dice in a decent race. It’s The All-Star Mile, the richest mile race on turf in the world, and it would be a real hoot to get in there,” Ryan said.
“Even just to take a place in the race would be quite an achievement.”
An A$13,000 yearling purchase Still A Star is currently ninth on the All Star Mile voting leader board. Winner of the Listed Tasmanian Oaks at her last start, Still a Star has won seven of her twelve starts and placed second in the other five runs.
Ryan’s lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, can only be cured with a lung transplant, but at 73, Ryan is too old to qualify for the difficult procedure.
He did initially worry about travelling with Still A Star if she made The All Star Mile field due to the risk of COVID19, a respiratory disease.
“Then I thought, ‘What the ****, I’m going to die anyway,” he said. “I may as well die happy. It won’t be much fun sitting at home watching it in the lounge, would it?”
With regards to his illness, he said, “The end result is not flash, but we are all heading down the same path. I just know quicker than most people when my time is up. (The diagnosis) drives things home to you. We take life for granted, but the greatest gift we have is life. When someone tells you that you have a use-by date, it makes you start to think a bit. But I’ve got a wonderful wife, family and close friends around me.”
The All-Star Mile takes its inspiration from Japan’s famous fan-voted race, the Arima Kinen. First run in 1956, the Arima Kinen was promoted to an international Gr1 race in 2007. Its popularity has continued to grow, with more than 1 million fans now voting for their favourite horses. Past winners include Deep Impact (2006), who was the world’s most valuable stallion before his passing in July 2019.
The race sees the public choosing the horses that will line up – their ‘All-Stars’. With a prize fund of A$5m, it is officially the richest mile race in the world. The All-Star Mile is rotated around Melbourne’s three premier racetracks: Flemington, Caulfield and The Valley – the latter track hosting the third on Saturday 13 March 2021.
The inaugural All-Star Mile was held at Flemington in 2019 and was won by flying filly Mystic Journey, who cost just A$11,000 and sailed back to Tasmania after the race with a cheque for A$2.25 million.
Last year another interstate horse, Western Australia’s Regal Power, took out the second running of the world’s richest mile race at Caulfield.
