Trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jr and jockey Blake Shinn were accomplices in a self-described “heist” in Saturday’s Group 1 Might And Power Stakes at Caulfield.
Once touted as a high-class prospect when starting his career with four straight wins, a series of issues, including a shoulder injury sustained in a water walker accident, halted Globe’s charge through the grades.
Globe won last year’s Cranbourne Cup but had not placed in four previous outings in Group company.
But a masterclass from jockey Blake Shinn propelled Globe into the Group 1 winners’ ranks.
“It was a heist, wasn’t it?” Price said. “But you know it’s a horse race, not a mathematical formula. I can’t put it in formula what you do sometimes as a trainer, but you know we dream dreams, don’t we?”
Pre-race billing hailed the Might And Power Stakes as a tactical clash between champion jockeys James McDonald and Damian Lane on Buckaroo and Treasurethe Moment respectively.
But Shinn sent a spring warning to his riding rivals with a ride that drew congratulations and handshakes from his contemporaries in the weighing area. Shinn controlled the speed but didn’t slam the brakes on after 400m in order to run the race at a farcical tempo, instead preferring to let the giant galloper stride as he pleased midrace.
Shinn’s judgement was so acute that he left enough in Globe’s tank to allow the gelding to run a quicker last 200m than his Group 1-winning opposition, drawing clear to win by three lengths. The reigning Melbourne jockeys’ premiership winner said he based his tactics on last year’s Might And Power Stakes in which Deny Knowledge led throughout.
“Our horse is more of a free-striding horse and he hasn’t got a quick change-up speed. Our best chance was to roll along at a good gallop like the way Deny Knowledge beat Mr Brightside and that was my thought process. He’s a very good horse on his day and, as we know, these small fields are tactical and they can throw up different results, sometimes a left-field one and it was us today.” Shinn said.