BROWNIE'S BLOG: A FIRST FOR MCGILLIVRAY, A SHINN MASTERCLASS AND PURTON OUTDOES THEM ALL

By Damian Browne | Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Recently retired, multiple Group 1 winning jockey Damian Browne has joined the HRO editorial with Brownie’s Blog - exclusive to HRO - now being published on a weekly basis.

It was really good to see Matthew McGillivray win the Group 1 Queensland Oaks aboard Winning Ways at Doomben on Saturday … especially as he has shown so much promise.

As we all know you need to show more than just promise to make it in this game and Matty has done that. He had a few issues early on and I think it was two Magic Millions’ ago … not this year’s one but the one before … where he copped a lot of flak because of his ride on EF Troop.

To come back after all of that and progressively do well and then put it all together on a big day just shows that he is up to it and it was great to see.

I see in an article on HRO where he said he wasn’t well during the week … but I also read that he was well enough to go out and celebrate … leaving Wiggo (Ryan Wiggins), who he beat into second place in the Oaks, to do the baby-sitting.

Good luck to him.

And just as an aside, how often does it happen when somebody passes, their horse comes out and wins. In this case, sadly, it was Paul Makin, the owner of Winning Ways, who passed earlier in the week and then his horse came out and won the Oaks.

It’s almost like they are looking down and somehow helping to push the horse over the line.

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Blake Shinn rode four winners on Saturday’s Doomben card with his usual aplomb.

Blake is always thinking of ways to maximise his opportunities so he’s always prepared to consider trying something different. He does think outside the box.

This year, for example, he has based himself in Queensland for the Carnival months and if there is a positive difference in that strategy he is clearly making the most of it. If you go back to Victory Stakes day, I think he rode three or four winners that day as well.

They were just brilliant rides.

He is obviously one of the best in the country and his talent has been on show week in and week out here.

I know he often wins on the more favourable fancies but there have been a couple of rides since he has been up here where it has been the ride that has won the race for them.

I think that happened on Saturday with the Godolphin horse Multaja.

To me, it was definitely his ride that won the race.

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Talking about top quality riders … my reply to a question I was often asked when I was riding might surprise people.

People kept telling me that when you are riding against supposed lesser riders … aah, that must be so much easier?

My response?

It is actually easier riding against better riders because they all know what they are doing and you don’t have to worry about them. You can concentrate on what you are doing yourself and on your own horse.

It is very competitive riding against top class jockeys but, relatively speaking, everything seems to go so smoothly. It seems to give you more time for yourself and also more time to take in what is going on around you.

I think it’s the same with all good sportsman. They seem to have more time to do things and, I guess, the further up the levels they go the more time they seem to have.

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I can’t talk about top riders without giving a special mention to Zac Purton and his exploits of the last couple of weeks, in particular, in which Zac has ridden six winners at each of the last two Sunday meetings at Sha Tin.

Zac has always been a terrific rider but as far as Hong Kong is concerned, when he went there I don’t think he ever thought Douglas Whyte would be knocked off even with the likes of Brett Prebble around.

Then, when Joao Moreira took over and was achieving so much and carrying all before him and breaking records, nobody ever thought that anyone would come along and break his records … yet Zac seems to be doing it easily at the moment.

On Sunday Zac broke the record for prize-money earned in a season by a jockey with his mounts currently having won a staggering HK$211 793 265 … and there are still eleven meetings left before season’s end.

Australian jockeys are held in high regard in Hong Kong … we’ve had so many great ones go there … but I think Zac is probably already the best of the all time of the Australians to go to Hong Kong.

That is quite incredible at such a young age.

I know Zac hasn’t got to Moreira’s record of number of wins in a season yet (170) but when Moreira set that record everybody said it would never be broken yet Zac now looks like he has every chance of possibly doing that.

Again, that’s just incredible.

It’s like we touched on last week with Chris Waller. Ten years ago, we would never have thought anyone could have got his level but with people like Chris and Zac around the top level just keeps being raised.

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I’m looking forward to the Stradbroke on Saturday.

I’d love to see The Bostonian win it … for him to become the first horse to complete the Group 1 treble of the Doomben 10 000, the Kingsford-Smith and the Stradbroke and, for reasons I’ve touched on before, for him to win it for Michael Cahill and Tony Pike.

That would be great to see.

He’s the runner I’d be cheering on at the moment.

Till next week

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