Shinn and tonic PT6M39S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-2w3tc 620 349 October 24, 2013 - 7:57PM Blake Shinn is confident his rollercoaster ride back to the top of the jockey ranks will culminate in victory aboard Cox Plate challenger Fiorente on Saturday. Shinn, who won the mount on the Gai Waterhouse-trained Fiorente thanks to a carefully worded text to the trainer, has been restoring his reputation following a 12-month ban in 2010 for gambling on horses. It's very exciting. It's a bit like being the first emergency on grand final eve and getting the call-up, but I've certainly seen the other side of it too," Shinn said. Back in town: Blake Shinn has saved his career. I've been working really hard since I've come back because you have to earn that trust again and work your way back into the frame for good rides. I've been riding work for Gai for about 18 months now and things have been going well. I'm starting to get a few more opportunities, but this is clearly the best of them. It is not only the pain of the gambling suspension that haunts Shinn. He missed out on riding the Waterhouse-trained Sebring to glory in the 2008 Golden Slipper due to a suspension for careless riding. "It happens, it's racing and you've just got to deal with it," he said. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with, but it makes you stronger. Shinn is hungry for another major race win, and it's been five years since he rode Viewed to success in the 2008 Melbourne Cup. Shinn's former manager, Des O'Keeffe, will be one of the proudest people at Moonee Valley on Saturday if the jockey can salute in the Cox Plate. O'Keeffe, now chief of the Australian Jockeys' Association, has handled hundreds of jockeys and thousands of their problems, and he's hardened to their quirky ways. But he admits Shinn is one of his favourites. In early 2004, O'Keeffe took on the role of managing the 17-year-old from Kilmore. "This young man has a staggeringly strong competitive streak about him," he said. In fact, you don't see a young jockey ride so close to the line between suspension and staying within the rules. I managed him for 18 months and I got a remarkable insight into how Blake Shinn went about life as a future top jockey. He was manic about succeeding and having his body perfect for a career as a leading jockey. He kept his own counsel and had very few friends; he just wanted to leave no stone unturned at getting to the top. It may have been lack of maturity, I'm not sure, but when I was managing him I can honestly say he missed hundreds of winners due to going over that line, sort of pushing the envelope too far. I remember clearly the day Blake got time in the bush and we had to ring and tell the Waterhouse stable that we could not take up an offer to ride in the Golden Slipper. The horse was Sebring and it won the race. O'Keeffe said it had always concerned him that Shinn was constantly putting pressure on himself, that there was no "Blake time." Just days after Shinn rode Demerger to victory in the 2005 Adelaide Cup, O'Keeffe took on his role at the jockeys' association and had to resign as Shinn's manager. "But I just watched his career from afar and I must say I wondered if he would make the grade in the long term," he said. He had come from a family deeply involved in harness racing and then he became a successful jockey in horse racing, and both sports have a common thread in that they both evolved and exist from gambling. It emerged that Shinn's pressure valve was released by gambling. Shinn's 18-month disqualification for having an estimated 2031 bets totalling more than $580,000 on races over two years devastated his former manager. "This is the last thing I could have imagined," O'Keeffe said. I know we sometimes don't see things that are looking at us in the face, but I had no suspicion whatsoever that he was going out and gambling. But he knew Shinn would learn his lesson. Not one utterance about 'why me' or 'poor me'. No, he said, 'I have stuffed up and I'm going to confront it'," O'Keeffe said. What made me feel better was that he was going to beat it. And trust me, when B. Shinn looks you in the eye and says he will beat it, I am one who will never doubt him.