Blake Shinn maintains he was robbed of victory in the Group 2 Sires’ Produce after being stopped in his tracks as rival Damien Thornton on winner Cifrado closed the door on his barnstorming run.
In what was a drama-filled edition of the $1m contest, humble Toowoomba trainer Rex Lipp, along with Thornton survived a tense protest hearing, where Shinn, who was aboard the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Make A Call said it was evident he was going to win the race.
While Shinn’s rail hugging run would eventually see him finish sixth, Make A Call’s stablemate Snapback stood to benefit if stewards were to overturn the result after finishing second.
A lot of interference! ????
Could we be headed into the stewards room? pic.twitter.com/czcRhbVz6f
— 7HorseRacing ???? (@7horseracing) May 27, 2023
Shinn said he took Thornton’s line after he rolled off the rail halfway up the straight and is adamant he was ready to storm to victory until Thornton rolled back in on him.
“I had no option but to stand up and check my mount,” Shinn told stewards.
“I have gone to the line untouched, I had a lapful of horse and never had an opportunity to test it.
“I was going to win the race, it is pretty evident in my mind I should have won. I was stood on my head.”
Defending his winning margin, Thornton fired back, telling stewards “I’m not sure what he’s watching.”
“I don’t believe I deviated far enough for Blake to get in there, there’s no way he’s winning the race.
“I held him fair and square, there was no way he was going to get past me, the right result has eventuated.”
Chief steward Josh Adams declared they could not be satisfied Shinn would have sailed past Thornton, declaring Cifrado the winner.
Busy finish in the BRC Sires’ Produce! ????
Cifrado claims it for Rex Lipp and Damien Thornton. pic.twitter.com/ypxZRPQrci
— 7HorseRacing ???? (@7horseracing) May 27, 2023
Lipp, who joked he hadn’t been in a protest hearing for five years now has the Group 1 JJ Atkins favourite in a fortnight and says his little known horse continues to raise the bar against his more fancied rivals.
“He’s been crying out for this sort of distance all the time. It was a big effort the other day. He finished the race off strongly like he did today,” he said.
“He’s a colt that every time I step him out he improves all the time. We haven’t seen the best of him yet. I do believe we’ve got more to go yet.”
After being slow away, Thornton was cool, calm and collected putting the colt into the race, before producing a searching run up the inside.
“He just fell asleep and couldn’t wake him up in the barriers so I thought it is what it is now. I gave him a squeeze after that,” he said.
“They went pretty quick for the first 400 metres of the race. Probably suited me where I was. It wasn’t the ‘A’ spot but we just take our medicine where we were.”