‘He does look like Nicconi’: Trainer Gerald Ryan bullish about Wyong runner Nibidano

He was a striking yearling who sold for $200,000 – and after a host of niggling issues plus a gelding operation, Nibidano is finally ready to put it all together on the racetrack.

Trainer Gerald Ryan. Picture: Jeremy Ng / Getty Images

Facts and figures tell us the Wyong-bound Nibidano has a 73 per cent chance of winning at least one race in his lifetime.

He could end up being a stakes-winner like one of his 27 paternal half-brothers, Nature Strip being one of them.

One thing he has going for him – among many – is that he is very much his father’s son.

“He does look like Nicconi himself,” co-trainer Gerald Ryan said.

That could be why Nibidano was the most expensive of the 10 Nicconi yearlings sold at the 2021 Inglis Classic Sale, knocked down for $200,000.

“He has always shown nice ability, it has just taken him a while to get there,” Ryan explained.

“He’s had a lot of little niggling problems, nothing major.

“He got a virus after his first run quite a while ago and we tried to keep him going and every time we worked him, it spiked the temperature so we turned him out and he came back and was almost ready to trial and he just started to feel his knees a little bit.

“So we tipped him out and gelded him and gave him six months out and he’s back all right.”

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For the record, Nibidano has trialled exceedingly well, twice, in the past few weeks at Rosehill ahead of his long awaited return to racing at Wyong on Tuesday in the Commsy’s Maiden Handicap (1100m) with Kerrin McEvoy in the saddle and in the Union Army colours.

McEvoy, Ryan and Alexio’s first order of business on Tuesday is with Lady Doris in the opener.

The flashy bay filly sent out all the right signs that a first win was close at hand with her closing debut second at Goulburn.

“She is a gross filly,” Ryan said. “She’d had a couple of trials and I took her to Goulburn and was sort of thinking she is going to need the run, but we’re not going to get her fit at home by working the heart out of her, so I took her to the races and she ran well.”

Ryan meanwhile is hoping for a few absentees from the last race at Wyong on Tuesday so his in-form mare Azayaka can slide in closer to the rails in the Mechpro Solutions Handicap (1100m).

“She is a well-bred filly,” the trainer said.

“A few of the boys at Vinery Stud have got a share in her, and we all just want to try and win a couple of races with her before she goes to the stud at the end of this season.”