Blake Shinn will be in the saddle when Tony Gollan’s stable star Antino faces the starter for the Group 1 Doomben Cup in the Group 1 on May 24.
The confirmation of that booking came after a very brief pause in proceedings when Shinn was forced to consider his immediate options moving forward after picking up a ten-day suspension at the Gold Coast meeting on Saturday.
Shinn was triumphant at that meeting, winning the Group 2 A. D. Hollindale Stakes in mighty fashion aboard Antino, but it was his ride on another Gollan trained runner Torabella earlier in the day which threw a spanner in the works in terms of Shinn’s on-going preferred riding schedule.
Shinn’s dilemma basically came down to when he would serve his ten-day suspension which, in turn, would dictate which Group 1 Saturday he would miss … the Doomben 10,000 day next Saturday, where he was scheduled to ride Schwarz, a last start Group 1 winner in the William Reid, in the day’s main feature race … or Antino, the Group 1 Toorak winner, a week later in the Group 1 Doomben Cup.
Shinn’s decision came down in favour of Antino. a horse he has ridden eight times for three wins since their paths first crossed in the Group 3 Sandown Stakes back in October 2023.
A year after their first race together, in October 2024 in the Group 1 Toorak Handicap, Shinn’s confidence in Antino’s ability prompted one of the rides of the season when he asked the son of Redwood to go from first to last in a 200m speed blitz from the 700m to the 200m … and, incredibly. Antino then maintained that concerted gallop all the way to the line to win the Group 1 by a spectacular 6.50 lengths.
And the joint confidence of this compelling combination has grown since then, as evidenced by Antino’s win in the Group 2 A. D. Hollindale at the Gold Coast on Saturday where Shinn and Antino again made a telling move from last, out five wide on the track no less, to surge into the lead on the point of the home turn, before racing on to win as he likes by a 3.50 length margin in demanding, heavy track conditions.
So, there was good reason for Shinn to stick with Antino, particularly as Antino, the horse that Gollan has claimed for some time to be the best horse he has trained, could well still have the best of his career in front of him.
By contrast, Schwarz, the horse that Shinn passed on in the Doomben 10 000 by electing to take his suspension when he did, will retire to stud this year.
The Zoustar four-year-old also has a Group1 win behind his name … having taken out the William Reid Stakes in his last start, a result which took his race career record to six wins from twelve starts … a very impressive fifty percent winning strike-rate.
That has been good enough for Schwarz to recover his purchase price. He was purchased for $1.2 million and has won a little over $1.3 million in prize-money.
Shinn has ridden Schwarz twice in the five runs the horse has had this season and did register a win on the John O’Shea and Tom Charlton trained runner in the Group 2 Australia Stakes back in January
Given the circumstances, Shinn couldn’t ride both horses in their upcoming feature races though, so a choice had to be made.
Shinn chose Antino.
