Shinn’s faith repaid by Morrison
Malcolm Shinn’s show of faith to entrust one of the best horses he’s ever trained to the hands of a young up-and-coming driver came up trumps on Saturday when Seaswift Joy claimed the $25,000 Geraldine Cup.
Shinn has never been afraid to try something a little different with his horses, so his decision to enlist junior driver, John Morrison, into the sulky of the brilliant mare should have come as no surprise.
It was not a quickly thought out choice, either. Shinn’s been watching Morrison for a while now.
‘‘He actually lives next door to me,’’ he said.
‘‘He trains his team of horses on my track, so I’ve been watching him driving and he’s got a very calm and patient style to him so there was no hesitation in giving him the chance to drive her.
‘‘He listens too, which is always a big bonus.’’
Morrison actually drove Seaswift Joy to win on debut at Ashburton, before she was sent south to the stable of Colin and Gordon Lee, where she fashioned an impressive record in the threeyear-old filly ranks.
‘‘I’ve had a lot of good fillies and mares over the years, but she’s right up there with them.’’
Second up after an eye-catching effort for seventh behind Bonnie Joan on Show Day, both Shinn and Morrison exuded plenty of confidence ahead of Saturday’s feature, despite the depth and talent the field possessed.
‘‘You never want to sound too confident or anything like that, but I was pretty sure she would go close.’’ Morrison managed to ping the mare away from behind the tapes and find the lead early before handing up to favourite James Dean.
With that sort of run she was always going to be dangerous and when the gap appeared she blasted through.
‘‘She was actually flat coming off the back, but when I asked her to sprint she just went.’’
James Dean fought back inside the final 50 metres to narrow the margin, but was unable to haul in the winner.
Mongolian Hero was best of the rest in third.
Shinn will now send Seaswift Joy to chase the riches on offer in Auckland for the Queen of Hearts where she will most likely join the stable of James Stormont.
Later in the day, Harriet Of Mot began her retribution of throwing away a Dominion Handicap when she won the feature trot for Craig and Aimee Edmonds.
John Dunn produced cool and calm hands on the mare and held her together up the straight to fight off the late surge of Monty Python. Harriet Of Mot will now head to next week’s Methven Green Mile where she will clash with Dominion Handicap winner, Amaretto Sun.
Earlier in the day Katie Cox grabbed the first training win of her career when she produced Mad Lu Li to win from the trail.
A successful junior driver, Cox is building a tidy team of horses around her and looks set for a prosperous career in the training ranks.