Tampabay downs media guide 16-0273-JK2

Trainer Profiles
Bernell Rhone
Born: April 17, 1949
Birthplace: Harvey, ND
Residence: Oldsmar, FL
Family: Daughter, LeAnn; son, Scott; two granddaughters
First Win: Villa’s Jet, Brown County Fair, Aberdeen, South Dakota
Started Training: Marquis Downs, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Canterbury Park
Bernell Rhone knows about getting on a hot streak. On Aug. 14, 2003 at
Canterbury Park in Shakopee, Minn., Rhone saddled six winners from seven
starters. “I thought my first one was my best shot, and when it ran fourth or fifth
I said to myself, ‘It’s going to be a long night,’ ” Rhone recalls. It was actually
much longer than he expected. “I couldn’t even sleep that night,” says Rhone,
a member of Canterbury Park’s Hall of Fame. “The only thing I regret is, I
didn’t buy a lottery ticket.” Rhone has accumulated more than 1,300 career
victories. Rhone is a former social studies teacher and guidance counselor
with a Master’s degree in counseling. Daughter LeAnn is his assistant, and son
Scott is a farrier. Rhone has teamed successfully over the years with jockey
Dean Butler, giving him a leg up when Butler won his 2,000th race last season
on Impromptu. Some of Rhone’s top runners over the years include multiplestakes
winner Dontbotherknocking, a Farma Way gelding who won more than
$700,000; Indiana-bred gelding Heza Wild Guy, who won eight stakes, 30
races overall and more than $650,000; Minnesota-bred multiple-stakes-winning
distaffer Dot’s Moment; and Game N Laughin,’ who won the 2008 Lightning City
Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs as a 5-year-old mare at odds of 29-1. Rhone won
five consecutive races at Tampa Bay Downs three seasons ago with the 8-yearold
gelding Gold Brew, a former $5,000 claimer.
Derek Ryan
Born: Sept. 22, 1966
Birthplace: Tipperary, Ireland
Residence: Eatontown, NJ
Family: Son, Christopher
First Win: Moosethegoose, Gulfstream Park, 1996
Started Training: 1995, Gulfstream Park
Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Monmouth Park
In December of 2014, Ryan unveiled a speedy 2-year-old filly named Irish
Jasper, winning the Gasparilla Stakes in record time of 1:22.41 for seven
furlongs. Subsequent victories as a 3-year-old in the Belle Harbor Stakes at
Aqueduct, the Grade III Adena Springs Miss Preakness at Pimlico and the
Grade III Victory Ride Stakes at Belmont followed before Ryan sold the filly
to W.S. Farish and David F. Mackie. It was not the first time Ryan traveled to
the Big Apple with a graded-stakes standout. He vaulted to prominence in the
spring of 2009 by saddling Musket Man for a victory in the then-Grade III Tampa
Bay Derby for owners Eric Fein and Vic Carlson. Musket Man, which had won
the Pasco Stakes earlier in the meeting, later captured the Grade II Illinois
Derby and finished third in both the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands
and Blackberry Preakness. As a 4-year-old, Musket Man won the Super Stakes
at Tampa Bay Downs and finished second in a pair of major Grade I stakes, the
Carter Handicap and the Metropolitan Handicap, as well as finishing third in the
Grade I Whitney at Saratoga.One of eight siblings, Ryan became interested
in horses at an early age. “I began riding ponies as a little kid, and things just
progressed from there,” he recalls. Ryan galloped horses in Europe for trainers
Criquette Head, Tommy Stack and Barney Curley. After coming to the United
States in 1989, he became a free-lance exercise rider and galloped for Hall of
Fame trainer William Mott, Phil Johnson, Joseph Orseno and Richard DeStasio.
Ryan set out on his own in 1995 and shortly afterward won his first stakes race
with Java Nagila, a former $12,500 claimer. His first graded stakes victory came
in the 2002 Jersey Derby with 55-1 shot Emergency Status.
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