There were some false starts before Blake Shinn finally arrived in Hong Kong for the 2019-20 season.
He took a bit of time to understand the lay of the land before hitting his straps and presenting his entire repertoire this season to racing fans, owners and trainers.
Of course, he’s always been a very very good jockey. He’s also known for being, well, somewhat enigmatic. He isn’t someone who goes out of his way to be Mr Popular.
He’s all business, and during his time in Hong Kong, if listening to some in the racing game, here was someone equal parts Keyser Soze, Wile E Coyote and Anne Baxter’s ambitious character Eve Harrington in “All About Eve”. Whew!
Whatever might have been said, one really doubts it bothered Shinn. He’s seemingly in his own dimension and just wants to ride winners and be happy within himself.
Recently, when Hong Kong racing’s “bubble” clogged up arteries and started affecting his mental being, Blake Shinn announced that though he hated to give up everything he had worked so hard on to be accepted in Hong Kong, he was returning to Australia- to Victoria and not New South Wales as some thought- to continue his career.
Not enough to keep him was the lure of more and more ka-ching ka-shing, the convenience of racing only twice a week and the low taxes which have always been an aphrodisiac for those who cannot get enough of money.
Good for him though one wonders if there might be a late play to have him change his mind, especially as the various restrictions on enjoying le joie de vivre in Hong Kong appear to be easing up. Oh, and the zit that was the “racing bubble” is said to have been popped.
Right now, there’s no one- no one- riding better and winning more consistently in the city than Blake Shinn, and on Sunday at Shatin, he took centre stage with a very well executed and treble.
This treble included his third Group 1 winner of the season and when he once again proved that no one in Hong Kong is better in reading a stayers race than him. No. One.
In the Group 1 Champions and Chater Cup run over 2400’metres, he settled the Douglas Whyte trained Russian Emperor on which he had won the Group 1 Gold Cup at the tail of the field, and was probably giggling to himself.
While those in front of him went on a dawdling pub crawl and with some of us yawning and wondering when the hell something was going to happen, Shinn had Russian Emperor circle the field and then in front.
That was really it. The others competed for the minor placings, but the dish had run away with the spoon.
It was a good day’s racing at Shatin with some terrific winning rides by Alexis Badel, the very underrated Derek Leung and a brilliant four timer from Joao Moreira.
There were also some excellent losing rides from Matthew Poon, Lyle Hewitson, Luke Ferraris, Luke Currie and Vagner Borges, but the day belonged to Blake Shinn.
He owned it.
