Blake Shinn\u00a0has cemented his status as Victoria\u2019s premier jockey after winning his third successive\u00a0Scobie Breasley Medal\u00a0at tonight\u2019s 2025 Victorian Racing Awards, presented by Pace Development Group.<\/p>\n
The win comes 20 years after he claimed the first of his four Scobie Breasley Medals as an apprentice in 2005 before building an impressive CV on the international racing stage.<\/p>\n
Since returning from Hong Kong, Shinn has emerged as the dominant force in Victoria\u2019s fiercely competitive riding ranks and the 37-year-old completed a clean sweep, claiming both the Victorian and Metropolitan Jockeys\u2019 Premierships in the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
After the Racing Victoria (RV) Stewards panel had cast their votes on a 3-2-1 basis at every Victorian metropolitan meeting for the ride they deemed the best of the day, Shinn was adjudged the clear winner of the Scobie Breasley Medal having polled 60 votes.<\/p>\n
He was awarded three votes on a season-high 13 occasions, including for his masterful Group 1-winning ride aboard Antino in the Hyland Race Colours Toorak Handicap (1600m) at Caulfield, where he unleashed a dazzling mid-race move.<\/p>\n
After a foot injury looked set to end his season prematurely, Shinn made an unexpected early return to battle it out with Craig Williams for the Metropolitan Jockeys\u2019 Premiership, and his late-season form impressed Stewards with Shinn landing 11 votes across the last five meetings of the season.<\/p>\n
Daniel Stackhouse was rewarded for the most successful campaign of his career with 46 votes, followed by Jamie Mott in third place (44), five-time Scobie Breasley Medallist Craig Williams in fourth (40) and Jamie Melham rounding out the top five on 32 votes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The result of the\u00a0Victorian Racehorse of the Year\u00a0award presented by Evans & Partners was equally clear cut, with Ladbrokes Cox Plate (2040m) heroine\u00a0Via Sistina\u00a0sealing a sixth success in the category for her trainer Chis Waller as the mare finished well clear of joint runners-up Treasurethe Moment and Mr Brightside.<\/p>\n
The Yulong-owned Via Sistina received 79 votes from the panel, comprising of industry officials and members of the racing media, following a remarkable Spring Racing Carnival which produced three Group 1 victories including her eight-length blitz in Australasia\u2019s weight-for-age championship.<\/p>\n
Lindsay Park\u2019s warrior Mr Brightside amassed 40 points together with Treasurethe Moment, whose trainer\u00a0Matt Laurie\u00a0received ample compensation when, in one of the closest contests of the night, he claimed the\u00a0Most Outstanding Training Performance\u00a0award presented by Gallagher Bassett Australia.<\/p>\n
Having masterminded eight straight wins for Treasurethe Moment, including three at racing\u2019s highest level, Laurie received 57 votes from the panel to pip Waller – who was nominated for his efforts with Via Sistina – to the prize by just three votes.<\/p>\n
The judging panel acknowledged Laurie\u2019s efforts in preparing the Yulong-owned Treasurethe Moment to become the first filly in 19 years to complete the VRC-ATC Oaks double.<\/p>\n
Third-placed in the award was Andrew Bobbin (16 votes), who was acknowledged for his deeds in preparing star jumper Duke Of Bedford to complete the challenging Brierly-Grand Annual Steeplechase double at the Warrnambool May Racing Carnival.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cranbourne trainer\u00a0Gavin Bedggood\u00a0also enjoyed a breakthrough season, having saddled up his first Group 1 winner, and the former jumps jockey was a worthy recipient of the\u00a0Colin Alderson Rising Star\u00a0Award\u00a0presented by Maddocks, which is awarded to a Victorian licensed trainer aged under 40 whose career is on an upward trajectory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a stellar 2024-25, Bedggood prepared a career-best 62 winners \u2013 up from 41 the year prior \u2013 and doubled his tally of stakes winners with feature race success from 1000m to 3200m, capped by Mornington Glory\u2019s win in the Group 1 Charter Keck Cramer Moir Stakes (1000m) at The Valley.<\/p>\n
The two peer-voted jockey awards went the way of\u00a0Damian Lane\u00a0and\u00a0Logan Bates, the respective winners of the\u00a0VJA Damien Oliver Most Valuable Jockey\u00a0and the\u00a0VJA Rising Star\u00a0awards.<\/p>\n
It was the second time Lane had received the senior accolade and a first win in his category for Bates, who also took out the\u00a0Victorian Apprentice Jockeys\u2019 Premiership\u00a0title with 79 wins.<\/p>\n
Tom Prebble,\u00a0the son of two-time Scobie Breasley Medallist Brett, received the trophy for the\u00a0Metropolitan Apprentice Jockeys\u2019 Premiership\u00a0after he prevailed in a hard-fought battle with 2024 VJA Rising Star Jaylah Kennedy by one victory, with 24 for the season.<\/p>\n
Other winners on Victorian racing\u2019s night of nights include the country\u2019s leading jumps jockey\u00a0Steve Pateman, who received the\u00a0Tommy Corrigan Medal\u00a0presented by Country Racing Victoria for the 10th time in his illustrious career. Pateman first won the award back in 2007.<\/p>\n
Several of his feature wins, most notably star steeplechaser Stern Idol, were achieved in tandem with his close friend\u00a0Ciaron Maher, who was awarded the\u00a0Fred Hoysted Medal\u00a0in recognition of finishing atop the\u00a0Metropolitan Trainers\u2019 Premiership\u00a0for the fifth season in succession.<\/p>\n
Maher prepared 113 Victorian metropolitan winners for the season \u2013 the stable\u2019s highest across the five titles \u2013 including six at Group 1 level headlined by a fairytale win for jockey Harry Coffey aboard Duke De Sessa in the Sportsbet Caulfield Cup (2400m).<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Lindsay Park Racing\u00a0team of Ben, JD and Will Hayes trailed Maher in the metropolitan, but they got the better of their rival in the overall\u00a0Victorian Trainers\u2019 Premiership\u00a0after preparing 240 winners across the state \u2013 16 more than Maher.<\/p>\n
Amongst their season highlights in Victoria were a hat-trick of Group 1 victories for the stable’s pin-up boy Mr Brightside, as well as an array of juvenile success including black type wins for Shining Smile (three), Miss Celine, Tycoon Star and Scenic Point.<\/p>\n
Following is a full list of awards presented at the 2025 Victorian Racing Awards:<\/p>\n
Scobie Breasley Medal\u00a0presented by Pace Development Group \u2013 Blake Shinn<\/p>\n
Victorian Racehorse of the Year\u00a0presented by Evans & Partners \u2013 Via Sistina<\/p>\n
Most Outstanding Training Performance\u00a0presented by Gallagher Bassett Australia \u2013 Matt Laurie<\/p>\n
Tommy Corrigan Medal\u00a0presented by Country Racing Victoria \u2013 Steve Pateman<\/p>\n
Colin Alderson Rising Star Award\u00a0presented by Maddocks \u2013 Gavin Bedggood<\/p>\n
VJA Damien Oliver Most Valuable Jockey\u00a0\u2013 Damian Lane<\/p>\n
VJA Rising Star\u00a0\u2013 Logan Bates<\/p>\n
RV Acknowledged Retrainer of the Year\u00a0\u2013 Jennifer Duffy<\/p>\n
RV Acknowledged Retrainer of the Year Runner-Up\u00a0\u2013 Louise Abey<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Jockeys\u2019 Premiership (Roy Higgins Medal)\u00a0\u2013 Blake Shinn (74 wins)<\/p>\n
Victorian Jockeys\u2019 Premiership\u00a0\u2013 Blake Shinn (146 wins)<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Apprentices\u2019 Premiership\u00a0\u2013 Tom Prebble (24 wins)<\/p>\n
Victorian Apprentices\u2019 Premiership\u00a0\u2013 Logan Bates (79 wins)<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Trainers\u2019 Premiership\u00a0(Fred Hoysted Medal)\u00a0\u2013 Ciaron Maher (113 wins)<\/p>\n
Victorian Trainers\u2019 Premiership\u00a0\u2013 Ben, Will and JD Hayes (240 wins)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blake Shinn\u00a0has cemented his status as Victoria\u2019s premier jockey after winning his third successive\u00a0Scobie Breasley Medal\u00a0at tonight\u2019s 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-55283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}