I remember speaking with Ryan Brewster over the phone for the very first time. At that point I knew very little about him but his words were very passionate and different from what I was used to hearing from the average horse person. He believed in his horse Wicked Django but interesting enough Wicked Django had only won twice from six career starts. Nevertheless Ryan Brewster was one confident owner and it brought a smile to my face hearing his words and seeing how passionate he was about his horse.
I wanted to hear more about him and also hear more about Wicked Django.
I arranged a meeting spot at Woodbine racetrack where I could learn more about Ryan and his horse Wicked Django. It turned out that booking the time with Ryan wasn’t so hard and I attributed this to our lengthy conversation on our very first phone call.
Ryan was an athlete in his earlier days and this struck well with me and my days of playing soccer and recreational basketball around the GTA. Ryan's views and perception of the athlete(the horse) was stemming from his very own experience back in his athletic days.
This was truly amazing to listen to.
After our interview at Woodbine racetrack, I needed more from this interesting horse owner who by the way was owning his very first horse.
Thinking about it now, it was almost a fairy tale but if you had heard our conversation you could believe in what Ryan was saying to me about his horse and his plans for the future. Not too many trainers I ran into had the same vision as Ryan and somehow I believed that the longer persons stayed involved with the horses that they could eventually lose the dream that they initially had when entering the industry.
Horse racing could be very taxing to many.
Wicked Django went on to run third respectively in the grade 3 Dominion Day stakes and then another third in the Seagram stakes on July 27th. Wicked Django was entered into the King Edwards Stakes which is run at one mile around the EP Taylor turf at Woodbine and by this time his owner Ryan Brewster was still very confident with the horse. Wicked Django ran fourth in the King Edwards and perhaps there could have been a damper in the camp but I didn’t get that feeling from the owner who still spoke very highly of his horse.
Strangely enough in a move that caught me by surprise, Wicked Django showed up in two optional claiming races right after the King Edward stakes. On September 14th 2024 Dun Drum defeated Wicked Django by a head in one of the fiercest stretch battles of the year giving jockey Fraser Aebly another win to his belt and leaving Wicked Django in second place.
By the time the grade 2 Autumn Stakes came around Wicked Django was now the under-dog and the public had given up on his chances of winning and that was a dangerous mistake to make as a handicapper. This story wrote itself and in one of the most shocking but brilliant rides of the year, Keveh Nicholls rode Wicked Django to his first graded stakes victory and won at the odds of 24-1.
This victory sealed everything that Ryan Brewster had mentioned to me about his horse and truly is an amazing story.
You can watch our entire conversation on the link below.
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