Young Whiz Delivers The Goods For Gai

The Age

Saturday March 8, 2008

Stephen Howell

The young man who wants to be Australia's top jockey has iced tea, with extra ice, for breakfast as he talks to Stephen Howell.

BLAKE Shinn walks into the cafe at 6.40am on Thursday just up the road from Randwick racecourse, just around the corner from his apartment. He wears lightweight black riding gear with his name in red on the chest.

Iced tea is all he wants. He has just ridden trackwork for his boss, champion trainer Gai Waterhouse, but he gives the impression he even sleeps in his gear, so much is he focused on racing.

Gone are the braces and most of the boyish pimples he had at 17 when The Age spent a long working day with him in December 2004 as he was taking wins and headlines from Melbourne's senior jocks.

Shinn is only 20, but he is part of a brave new world in Sydney, where he, a couple of other Victorians and a South African have put local jockeys in the shade. It has been a journey quickly travelled, originally in his home state and especially after taking the right fork in the road almost 12 months ago.

He asked champion trainer John Hawkes, champion jockey Craig Williams and stepfather-coach Lee Hope for advice, but did not need to be asked twice by Waterhouse, when out of the blue he was offered the stable job in tandem with heavyweight Melbourne jockey Nash Rawiller.

Shinn was riding a tonne of winners in Victoria, but he had a welter of suspensions for careless and, at times, aggressive riding and the fame that beckoned appeared to be receding.

No more, and despite the equine influenza crisis that shut down Sydney racing for three months last year - he came home for that period - Shinn is at the top of the tree with 49 wins this season, 18 clear of Rawiller.

And he is loving it: the trackwork six days a week; the racing, usually three days a week; and being part of what he keeps referring to as "our" stable, as Waterhouse gives ownership to her employees. "She makes Nash and I feel a part of it and feel good to work for a big stable," Shinn said.

He still cannot be called garrulous and, unlike his boss, he gives no outlandishly optimistic comments. But his measured statements about his passion are genuine, regular and occasionally made with a hint of a grin.

What does he enjoy so much? "Just the horses, the education. It's good to be involved with the stable. It's such a good learning curve if, down the track, I go overseas."

When might that be? "In five or 10 years, not sure where. I hope to be one of the best in Australia and I'll just keep chipping away at it."

With other trainers as well as Waterhouse - she has 41 winners this season - Shinn and Rawiller have 80 all up.

Shinn is getting support from Gary Portelli, Bart Cummings, Chris Waller, Gerald Ryan and, recently, Jack Denham, without riding work for them.

There is no written contract with Waterhouse, just an obligation to be at the track by 4.30am and ride the horses he is asked to ride. Weight is the obvious factor, with Rawiller going no lower than 55 kilograms, Shinn able to get to 53, but if the stable has six runners at a meeting, the likelihood is that they will get three each.

They are told to ride them the way Waterhouse trains them to race - up on the pace.

Shinn agreed that that might seem one-dimensional, but the horses are fit and tough and, usually, can stay out of trouble there.

Shane Dye, trying to resurrect his career in Sydney after quitting Hong Kong, said his impression from the sidelines was that Shinn had been getting away with murder in taking his horses to the lead and slowing the field. "Yeah, that'd be correct," the "killer" said.

Surely, other riders will wake up and put on pressure, won't they? "The way the stable looks at it, if they put pressure on our horses, they're only bringing themselves undone," he said. "Ours are the fittest in the race."

Shinn said Waterhouse had criticised rides, but, complaint made, she did not dwell on it. "She says, 'You can't change it. Learn from it, go on to the next ride'."

Praise is more public, as when Waterhouse compared Shinn to international great Frankie Dettori when the young jockey rode four consecutive winners at Rosehill in January.

"I wasn't joking about Blake reminding me of Frankie," she said. "Blake has just wonderful ability."

Shinn's response? "It's good she gave me such praise, but I don't let it go to my head."

His best ride since heading north? "Prince Of Truth, an odds-on favourite - I got back on him, waited, got out at the furlong, dashed through.

"I just never panicked."

At Rosehill today, he has nine rides, with five for Waterhouse, including veteran star Desert War, who resumes in the Apollo Stakes (1400 metres), a group 2 race with a group 1 field.

And after a short, enforced break, he will resume on Saturday week with eyes on carnival group 1s for Desert War, Sebring, Sliding Cube, Mutawajid and Bank Robber.

He is making light of the time off, the result of a suspension last weekend that was reduced by 50% because of staying out of trouble for nine months.

And the reasons for the recent clean record? "I'm more cautious, more aware. I've been a lot more patient." And matured? "Yeah."

Happy in the saddle. Happy in being Blake Shinn. And why wouldn't he be, with a job he knows others would die for.

© 2008 The Age

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