Shinn has success with Lee brothers
Christchurch horseman Malcolm Shinn has had a lot of success with horses he sends to Wyndham trainers Gordon and Colin Lee.
The trio had a red letter day at Ascot Park last weekend winning three races with Seaswift Joy, Art Exhibit and Royal Counsel. They will be back there on Sunday for the last three races on the Diamonds Day card.
Seaswift Joy is one of the favourites for the Group II $45,000 Southland Oaks. Art Exhibit has drawn nicely at two for the Foveaux Communications Pace and Royal Counsel lines up in the Transport Engineering Southland Pace.
Royal Counsel won the Oaks in 2014, with Gordon Lee driving. She retired last season but because she didn’t get in foal, Shinn brought her back into work.
She was jogged up before arriving back at the Lee stable in the late summer.
The Shinn-trained and Gordon Leedriven Seaswift Princess finished second in the 2007 Oaks.
The horsemen’s runner this year, Seaswift Joy, has won six races since December 1 – all from the Lee stable. She won five consecutive races during the summer.
Gordon Lee said the Sunday won’t trouble her.
‘‘She can stay and I know she will run the distance.’’
Her main opposition is expected to come from Winton Cup winner Delightful Memphis and the Dexter Dunn-driven Bonnie Joan.
Meanwhile, Colin Lee had a driving win in the Oaks when reining Scapa Chip in 1988. Scapa Chip was trained by his father ‘‘Hori.’’
The father and son nearly got a second Oaks when their charge, Girl George, went down by a neck in 1987.
Other feature races at Ascot Park on Sunday are the Group II $45,000 Southern Supremacy Stakes, Group III $38,000 2-YearOld Classic and $25,000 Southern Country Cups Final.
All seven starters trained in Canterbury. in 2700 the metres on Classic are