Champion jockey Blake Shinn will make his long-awaited return to race riding at Flemington on Saturday, eight months after suffering a serious leg injury on Melbourne Cup Day.
Shinn has been sidelined since November 4 after sustaining a complicated compound fracture of his left leg, breaking both his tibia and fibula in a race fall at Flemington.
The incident occurred in Race 9 on Melbourne Cup Day when his mount, She’s Got Pazzazz, fell at the 200-metre mark, beginning a lengthy rehabilitation that has kept one of Australia’s premier jockeys out of the saddle for the past eight months.
Now fully recovered, Shinn returns with six rides on Saturday’s Flemington program and has an immediate opportunity to make a winning comeback.
His strongest chance appears to come in the opening race aboard the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Nearco Frod, who will be chasing a hat-trick of victories.
Shinn’s return has been well supported by several leading stables, including Ben, Will and JD Hayes, David Noonan, and the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young training partnership.
Team Hayes has entrusted Shinn with three rides at his first metropolitan meeting back, accounting for half of his book.
Those mounts are Eurocanto in Race 2, Touchdown in Race 6 and War Machine in Race 7.
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After eight months on the sidelines, Saturday’s Flemington meeting marks a significant milestone in Shinn’s recovery and offers the decorated rider the chance to resume where he left off before injury struck on Melbourne Cup Day.
