Former Irish jumps jockey Shane Jackson chases first group 1 win in the Victoria Derby

King Snitz came to Jackson through Tony Ottobre, owner of the popular mare Pride Of Jenni. Jackson had messaged Ottobre asking for a horse, recalling that he had ridden a jumps winner for him years ago, and was told Ottobre preferred trainers closer to home on the peninsula. About a month later, Ottobre texted Jackson about a young colt too small to take to the sales, asking whether he would take him and break him in.

Jackson's road to the top started in Baltinglass, an Irish town about 60 kilometres south-west of Dublin. A champion claiming jumps jockey, he rode at the major festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree, but rides dried up during Europe's economic crisis in the early 2010s and he moved to Australia in 2012 with his wife Lauren and their young son Joseph. "The mortgage was getting higher to pay," Jackson said. "It was either going off to find a different career path or go on an adventure." The plan was to stay three or four years; two more children later, with another on the way, Jackson and his wife are still here.

Jackson became one of the top jumps jockeys in his adopted home, winning back-to-back Tommy Corrigan Medals as Victoria's leading jumps jockey in 2018-19 and 2019-20, before retiring in 2021 aged 34. "A lot of sportspeople probably go on for too long, I went out with people wondering why I was giving it away, but I was thinking about training," he said. He is among a growing number of jumps jockeys aiming to make it as trainers, following Ciaron Maher, who started in Warrnambool and for whom Jackson rode a winner, and Gavin Bedggood, who won this year's Caulfield Cup with Kingswood. "There's one place these guys want to get and that's the top," Jackson said. "I'd love to on some day be a Ciaron Maher or Chris Waller. We just want to get bigger and get better quality horses and more winners."

Jackson stepped out on his own as a trainer in 2024 with four horses and 40 boxes to fill. "We had a big empty barn," he recalled. "It was a bit daunting early days." He has held a trainer's licence since 2022. He has about 50 horses, based primarily in Warrnambool with some at Flemington, and a staff of 20. His wife, who works for Bendigo Bank by day, takes care of billing and accounts by night. "We've built pretty quick, which is great," Jackson said. "Just work hard, keep the winners coming so we can keep expanding."

He spent about five years with the former Warrnambool father-son training partnership of Bill and Symon Wilde, breaking horses on the side while riding full-time, and has also worked briefly for Darren Weir before his disqualification and in Lindsey Smith's stables. "It's not like being a flat jockey, that's why they reckon jumps jockeys make good trainers in Australia," Jackson said.

King Snitz is the stable star and Jackson's first winner at group level after victory in the Norman Robinson Stakes (2000m), a traditional Derby lead-up race. Jackson loved the colt from the start. "[He's] not the simplest horse to deal with, but you'd never get to the bottom of him when he was at the breaker," Jackson said. "He was light-framed, small, carrying me around at 70 kg, and you still wouldn't get him tired." "From day one we liked him. It was a waiting game then to get him to grow and develop and get him to the races."

The plan this spring was to run King Snitz two or three times before tipping him out to the paddock, but his form lifted with the rise in distance and the goals became loftier. "It's everyone's dream to win a group 1, no doubt we'll get there," Jackson said. "If we could do that in the Derby this Saturday, it'd be amazing. It'd be a wee bit surreal, I suppose, but I think we do have a great chance." He said a group 1 win would help the business and attract better quality horses.