When he arrived at Rosehill for his first meeting back from suspension, the most Blake Shinn could have hoped for was three winners from his three scheduled rides.
Hugh Bowman’s absence due to illness presented another opportunity on Heart Testa and Shinn walked away with four winners on the eight-race program.
Heart Testa
Church Boy, Dothraki and Vashka upheld their end of the bargain with Heart Testa making up the quartet.
“I came here with three rides hoping for one winner and that the others would go well,” Shinn said.
“Everything just fell into place.”
The stand-out of Shinn’s rides was the David Vandyke-trained Church Boy who will be aimed at the Villiers Stakes after notching his fourth straight win.
The Gerald Ryan-trained Dothraki is also headed for bigger things while Vashka may not be among the top echelon of Godolphin’s horses but his win was significant.
The victory gave trainer John O’Shea his first treble since he took over as Sheikh Mohammed’s head Australian trainer in May.
Godolphin’s other two winners, Snow White and Malice, were ridden by Sam Clipperton.
While Shinn has scaled the heights with a Melbourne Cup and a Sydney premiership already under his belt at 27, Clipperton is just beginning to make his way as a senior rider.
Sydney’s champion apprentice for the past two seasons, Clipperton had three rides for Godolphin and secured his double with Snow White and Malice, earning praise from O’Shea.
“Blake is riding really well and Sammy is doing a great job,” O’Shea said.
“He deserves a lot of the credit for the win of Malice to get him home in a tight finish.”
Malice edged Midsummer Sun out of second by a nose in the 1900m open handicap to earn a chance at the Listed ATC Cup (2000m) in two weeks.
“I think 2000 metres is his mark so that’s his race,” O’Shea said.
“I don’t think he will step up to 2400 in the Christmas Cup.”
O’Shea said Snow White would probably go for a break and come back for the autumn.
“It’s my first treble since I joined Godolphin so it’s been a good day.”
Josh Parr and Tim Clark picked up the other two winners at the meeting.
