Racing passion rekindled for Hall and Riyazan

It is hard to get the passion for the horse and racing out of the blood.

Vincent Hall was an accomplished jockey who retired from race riding in 2006 and only recently took out a trainers' licence.

On Saturday, Hall will saddle just his eighth starter as a trainer when Riyazan lines up in the Listed Cranbourne Cup (1600m).

From his previous seven runners, Hall has a solitary win, Chappaquiddick in a benchmark 58 race at Avoca, while Riyazan will be his second starter at Stakes company.

After retiring from riding, Hall wanted to see what else was around and after a while decided to give working in the mines in Western Australia a try.

After seven years of tough work and getting a dollar or two behind him, the racing blood took over.

"I was on a roster of two weeks on, one week off, at the mines," Hall told RSN.

"On my week off I was coming back to Melbourne and in the end dropped in at Nick Ryan's stables and got the bug for the horse back in the blood."

After starting his career in Ireland then making his way to Hong Kong, Riyazan was a more than handy performer until struck down with a tendon injury.

In association with Cranbourne trainer Lisa Jones, Riyazan was rehabilitated, originally with hopes of living out his life at a good home.

But Hall said the rehabilitation went better than anticipated and the now nine-year-old resumed his racing career, firstly with Jones earlier this year, then after two runs this campaign he was transferred into Hall's care for his past two starts.

After beating one horse home at Sandown on October 1, Riyazan showed improvement finishing third in the Listed Sale Cup (1600m) on October 29.

"He is getting on now, he is a nine-year-old, but it was good to see him show a bit of form last start, running third at Sale," Hall said.

"His trackwork has been really good and he's shown that he wants to do it, so in between Sandown and Sale, we put him over a few jumps just to reignite something in him and it seemed to work.

"He's a very happy horse at moment.

"He's healthy and well and I wouldn't be surprised if he ran a big race."