Blake Shinn, a 21-year-old jockey who was born to ride, shared the credit for his heartstopping victory in today's Melbourne Cup with his family and two great trainers – Bart Cummings and Gai Waterhouse.
"Gee, he's the master Bart Cummings. You just can't underestimate him," were Shinn's first comments after he scraped home in today's $5.5 million race on the Cummings-trained Viewed.
"To win the Melbourne Cup for a living legend in the sport is a great honour and I thank him very much for giving me the opportunity.
"He was trained perfectly for the race and that was all important.”
In a verdict regarded as the closest to a Melbourne Cup dead heat since the introduction of the photo finish camera in the 1940s, Viewed lasted by a nose from the charging English stayer Bauer to give Shinn the win every jockey yearns for.
Shinn said he was only hoping he had held on to win and was expecting a dead heat due to the delay in posting the result as the horses pulled up.
"I can't believe it. It's one of the greatest moments in sport, to be able to ride the Melbourne Cup winner,” he said.
“The straight seemed to last forever. I thought I'd won on the line but I wasn't sure,
“I didn't want to go off too early after the line. I looked to the infield and they had the camera on Bauer so I thought I might be wrong.”
Shinn is the son off former top rider Gerald Shinn but was raised by his mother Carol and step father, successful Victorian trainer Lee Hope.
"They got me to where I am today and I can't thank them enough," he said.
From the start of his apprenticeship he was hailed as one of Melbourne's brightest young riding talents but his career was stalling about 18 months ago due to a consistent record of careless riding suspensions despite winning the coveted Scobie Breasley Medal as an apprentice.
However his talent had caught the eye of Sydney's champion trainer
Gai Waterhouse and she successfully lured him north to become one of her top stable jockeys.
The link with Waterhouse took Shinn to victory in last season's Sydney riding premiership and also enabled him to form closer ties with the Cummings stable, an association that led to his Melbourne Cup booking for Viewed.
An emotional Shinn made special mention of Waterhouse during the post-race celebrations.
“Gai had faith in me to bring me up to Sydney from Melbourne and full credit to her," he said.
"If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be in the position I am today, a leading rider in Sydney and getting such a nice ride - it's just a dream come true."
Shinn's time with Waterhouse has not all been plain sailing as suspensions cost him two Group One wins for the stable in the Golden Slipper Stakes in April and only last Saturday when he lost the ride on Northern Meteor in the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
He resumed riding from his latest suspension today with Viewed only the third Group One win of his career after his previous successes in the 2005 Adelaide Cup (Demerger) and this year's AJC Sirs Produce Stakes on Sebring.
He was having his fifth ride in a Melbourne Cup with his previous best finish being eighth. Runner-up Corey Brown had to be content with his third minor placing from eight rides in the Cup.
Shinn's first big win as an apprentice was on a Cummings-trained horse - Accumulator in the 2005 VRC St Leger - raced by Viewed's owner Dato Tan Nim Chan.
