Jockey Shanker wins down under

Bengaluru: Hyderabad-born jockey Deep Shanker’s half a decade of hard toil and perseverance in Australia finally paid off as the 38-year-old registered his maiden win Down Under late last week.

Shanker, who started his career at the Hyderabad Race Club before migrating to Australia in search of greener pastures, galloped to victory astride Kirkuk in the Evergreen Turf Australia Benchmark 58 Handicap over 1200 metres at Golburn last Friday.

“It’s an amazing and great feeling to win after a long, long time,” Shanker was quoted as saying in a post on X by Racing NSW. “It was a bit tough (at the start) because people don’t know me. (Trainer) Greg (Lee) knows me as I’ve been working for him. He’s been very supportive of me, from the trial day. he gave a good winner today. Australia is home for me now and I like it.”

Shanker, following in the footsteps of his late father B Shanker, had a decent career going on in Hyderabad when he decided to try his hands in Australia. Although he wasn’t an elite jockey, Shanker registered close to 250 wins and was a feature on almost all racing days. Despite going steady, he moved to Australia and the early days were tough, as is the case for most Indian jockeys who venture abroad. He started off as a stable worker, moved up to work rider rank and then finally started to get a few races.