Shaune Ritchie
In 1984 Shaune Ritchie was fifteen and still at school. Like many teenagers he had a part-time job – in his case working as a stablehand for his father Frank, mucking out boxes and riding work.
One afternoon, while working at the Ellerslie yard, he was told that a new horse had arrived earlier in the day and because Frank’s full-time staff had already picked their teams to strap for the season the new arrival would be his. An inspection of his new and sole team member brought Shaune Ritchie face-to-face with the horse that would set his career path in stone.
Bonecrusher had arrived.
Within three months Shaune had left school and was on the ride of his life. Fast forward 25 years – and acknowledge a fair amount of blood, sweat and tears in between – and Shaune Ritchie is now at the top of his game.
CHAMPION NZ TRAINER OF THE YEAR
Completing his most successful season ever in 2009/10, Shaune became just the third trainer – behind the legendary Colin Jillings and Dave O’Sullivan – to win the NZ Derby and NZ Oaks in the same season.
Add a New Zealand Cup, a Desert Gold Stakes and a Metropolitan Trophy to the mix and Ritchie’s five-win stakes haul banked him as New Zealand’s leading stake-money earner for that season.
Shaune, who has most definitely inherited the Ritchie ‘way with people’ and natural horsemanship, attributes his ability to attract and retain a loyal client base as one of his greatest assets.
‘The widely respected horseman continues a family legacy of training horses with tremendous success throughout New Zealand and Australia’.
