Blake Shinn has become the first jockey to put both the New South Wales Metropolitan Jockey’s Premiership AND the Victoria Metropolitan Jockey’s Premiership behind his name … and that accolade will stay after clinching the later title in the season just ended.
When you put a ‘first’ behind your name in that context it stays in the record books forever.
Shinn won the New South Wales Metropolitan Premiership back in the 2007/08 season … one season before he reached racing’s highest ground when landing the 2008 Melbourne Cup aboard Viewed … Bart Cummings’ twelfth and final Melbourne Cup winner … in that thrilling stride for stride battle to the line with Bauer when these two horses flashed through the finish line, seemingly impossible to separate by the naked eye.
There have been good times and not so good times Shinn since that Melbourne Cup win, but he remained resilient throughout.
He had to be.
A fifteen-month suspension for a betting rule infringement in 2011 and a close on six-month time away from race riding due to a broken neck sustained in a barrier trail accident in 2018 could easily have dulled Shinn’s enthusiasm for his profession, but he managed to keep rolling with the punches while looking ahead and weighing up his options.
At the start of the 2019/20 season, Shinn sought out a new challenge, deciding to ply his trade in Hong Kong. After a slow start … it is a racing precinct that is really difficult to break into … Shinn’s talent, combined with the increasing opportunities that began to come his way, led to him landing a double Group 1 success during his time there … which was reward for his talent and perseverance.
But, just as his Hong Kong career was nicely up and running, the strict Hong Kong Jockey Club Covid Protocols were beginning to take its toll on Shinn.
He had no problem with them being in place … but he was starting to struggle with the claustrophobic effect that came with it, a factor which ultimately led him to reluctantly decline to apply for his riding license for the 2022/23 season, citing mental health issues as being a real side effect of the Covid restrictions.
So, in August 2022, Shinn came back to Australia … spent a few days in Sydney and then flew to Melbourne to take up his next challenge … which, again with a few misadventures, he ended up passing with flying colours, pocketing the Metropolitan Premiership along the way.
Some will be quick to point out that Shinn’s total of 66 winners was only seven winners ahead of the sidelined Jamie Kah, who has not ridden since taking a heavy fall in March, but that argument doesn’t really apply.
If you want to recalibrate a jockey’s premiership by measuring any jockey’s time out of the saddle through injury … or when they rode with an injury … or were suspended … that would be a fool’s errand.
For that you can go to the winning strike rates … but if you want to win a jockey’s premiership outright, it’s simple.
You have to ride the most winners.
That is what Blake Shinn, giving him the unique honour of winning the major jockey’s premiership in both of the country’s eading racing states.
