Blake Ryan has been patiently laying the foundations of his training career for eight months but horses like the improving Illustrating Law have kept things ticking over.

The three-year-old winds up a successful first preparation with Ryan on his home track in the Fowler Civil Contracting Handicap (1000m) at Hawkesbury on Thursday.

With 15 horses in work, most early three-year-olds or younger and many unnamed, Ryan said it had been a “slow burn” in terms of runners since he kicked off his training career with a winner in February.

“As far as having a runner week to week and getting your name out there, it’d be nice to have more. But you’ve got to be patient and deal with what we’ve got,” he said.

“We’ve got to keep placing them right but so far, with limited runners, I reckon we’ve gone all right.”

Illustrating Law has had a busy first campaign. He came to Ryan from David Vandyke, with a jump out and barrier trial already under his belt, and has since had three race starts.

He also came with quirks, which Ryan has smoothed out, particularly his awkward way of leaving the stalls.

“His biggest thing early days in his first two starts was leaving the gates, he wanted to jump up instead of out,” he said.

“He’s got better and Jason [Collett] has worked him out pretty quickly.”