An injury has prevented Shaun Phelan from competing in one role over the last few months, but the versatile horseman has made giant strides in another one – earning the honour of the gavelhouse.com Newcomer to Training Award at the recent New Zealand Thoroughbred Horse of the Year Awards in Auckland.
The 31-year-old was originally best known as a jumps jockey, riding more than 120 winners and topping New Zealand’s premiership table for the 2021-22 season. Among his victories are no fewer than 25 Prestige Jumping Races, including the coveted Grand National Steeplechase, Grand National Hurdle, Great Northern Steeplechase and Great Northern Hurdle.
Phelan was injured in a race fall at Warrnambool in early May, ruling him out of riding for the remainder of the jumps season. But he has instead put his full attention into his fledgling training career, which he elevated to a new level during 2022-23.
Phelan trained a total of 17 winners from 96 runners during that season, and his runners earned a total of $369,300 in stakes.
Those results have lifted Phelan’s career tally to 54 wins from 374 starters, with total prize-money of $1.23 million. He began his training career in partnership with his father Craig five years ago, subsequently relocating their base from Rotorua to Cambridge, and he has been training in his own right for the last two seasons.
Phelan set the Newcomer to Training Award as a personal goal for himself during the 2022-23 season, and he delivered in great style. Notably, his 17 wins came from no fewer than 10 different horses.
“It was very rewarding to pick up the Newcomer to Training Award, and it was a great season,” Phelan said. “It was especially good that we were able to win races with 10 different horses.”
A headline performer for the stable in 2022-23 was Enchanted Elle (NZ) (Jakkalberry), who began the season with only one win to her name from 12 career starts and had a rating of 65.
From 13 races last season, Enchanted Elle collected another five wins and three placings, earning over $113,000 in stakes. In June and July, she captured the time-honoured $35,000 Parliamentary Handicap (2200m) and $50,000 Taumarunui Gold Cup (2200m).
Enchanted Elle delivered another notable result in September of last year, when she won the Flair Amateur Riders (2200m) with Phelan’s sister Leigh in the saddle.
“A couple of highlights from the season come to mind,” Phelan said at Sunday evening’s awards ceremony. “Earlier in the season we had a really good day at the Pakuranga Hunt meeting – I rode a winner, I trained a winner, my sister rode a winner in the amateur riders’ race, and our apprentice jockeys Kelsey (Hannan) and Elen (Nicholas) rode winners too. So that was a really good team effort.
“And then, later in the season, winning the Taumarunui Cup was another big highlight.”
Another notable runner has been Hill Of Kings (NZ) (Time Test), who Phelan bought for only $600 from gavelhouse.com in February. From five starts since joining the stable, he has recorded two wins and two placings, earning $32,930 in stakes.
Phelan even has a lucrative Australian target in the back of his mind for the talented four-year-old – the A$300,000 Jericho Cup (4600m).
“I bought him off gavelhouse.com for $600, so he’s done a great job already and I hope to qualify him for the Jericho,” Phelan said.
Phelan believes his riding background gives him a real advantage when it comes to training horses.
“I’m lucky that I can get on a horse and get a good idea of how it feels,” he said. “It’s like a car driver testing out a car. But I’ve also had some injuries and have had to rely on other people to ride them and tell me how they’re going. Being able to ride them yourself is a big advantage, so I’d like to keep doing that.”
Phelan is refusing to get too far ahead of himself in terms of setting goals for the next 12 months.
“I’d really like to win some sort of stakes races – that would be a good goal for this season,” he said. “But I’m not too worried about numbers of wins or things like that. I’ll just try to keep the strike rate going.”
Currently live on gavelhouse.com is a 39 Lot mixed bloodstock auction that includes the recently retired Group One performer for Challenge Syndications, Best Seller.
Bidding ends from 7pm on Monday.
Photos courtesy of Nicole Troost and Race Images.
