Melbourne Cup Day 2025: Jockey Blake Shinn in horror fall in Flemington straight

The huge crowd at Flemington have watched on in horror as a bad race fall played out in Race 9 on Tuesday.

Jockey Blake Shinn was left lying on the track at around the 200m mark in the famous Flemington straight after his mount She’s Got Pizzazz, trained by Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman, crashed to the turf during the running of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes.

Ambulances, paramedics and support staff rushed to Shinn, who lay motionless on the turf for moments after the fall, before assessing him and rounding up the four-year-old mare, who managed to get back on her feet and run through the finish line.

Vision of Shinn, 38, sitting up on the track was encouraging to see, but the star hoop was clearly in pain and was given the green whistle for pain relief as has was treated by the medics.

Victoria Race Club Stewards have reported that Shinn has been transported to the hospital with a serious leg injury.

The final event on the big 10-race card was delayed as safety requirements dictate that the ambulance being used or a replacement must be on track before the next race can be run.

“After a fall at Flemington, Blake Shinn is to be transported to hospital with a suspected broken left leg,” the Victorian Jockey Association said in a statement.

Shinn has been the leading jockey in Melbourne for a number of years and famously won the Melbourne Cup aboard Viewed in 2008.

Winning jockey in the race, Kerrin McEvoy, sent his thoughts to Shinn.

“Firstly, I just hope Blake Shinn is OK,” McEvoy said in the post-race interview in Nine.

“You don’t like to see a riderless horse after a race.”

Stewards have also advised that jockey Jye McNeil has been handed an 18-meeting suspension for his ride on Valiant King in the Melbourne Cup.

Earlier, in the Melbourne Cup, winner Half Yours returned with blood in his mouth after sustaining a minor laceration to the inside of its left cheek.

The horse was perfectly fine and required no veterinary attention.

Last place-getter Buckaroo came back with exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhaging, or bleeding.

This is a result of exertion and a full recovery is made.