Dye still has Hong Kong desire as eye for a good horse sees him branch out into bloodstock trade

It’s not that Shane Dye, the former champion but polarising jockey turned Hong Kong punter and media pundit, isn’t content with his life. He is.

But the 93-time Group 1-winning rider, who has resided on Queensland’s Gold Coast since the pandemic, admits he could be about to get itchy feet again. 

“When Covid hit, I couldn’t stay (in Hong Kong), so I went back to the Gold Coast and I just haven’t moved from there in the last four or five years,” Dye told The Straight from Karaka where he was attending last week’s New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.

“It doesn’t mean in six months I won’t go back there. I’m a little bit of a … I like to wander, you know.

“I go somewhere for seven years, then go somewhere else for seven years. I’ve split my life up into interesting blocks where I’ve experienced a lot of different things.”

The lure of being back in Hong Kong on a full-time basis never really left the expatriate Kiwi who made a short-lived comeback to the saddle in New Zealand more than a decade ago.

He rode 276 winners at Sha Tin and Happy Valley during an eight-year stint until he decided to return to Sydney in 2009 for family reasons.

It’s a racing environment that has changed significantly since Dye finished riding in Hong Kong, and the evolution continues as another batch of champion trainers such as John Size, Ricky Yiu and Francis Lui near retirement age.

“I watch Hong Kong all the time. I’ve got my own database. I do so much form on Hong Kong and I do a podcast on Hong Kong racing, so it has become my forte,” he said.

It was connections that Dye made during his stint riding in Hong Kong that lured him to his home country and the NZB two-year-old sale last week, an alliance that has allowed him in the trading of bloodstock, principally to Asia.

Much like his focus on Hong Kong form, he knows his limitations and is happy to play within a niche. 

“I’ve got some friends from Hong Kong who wanted me to purchase some horses for them, so we bought four last year, and it was very successful. They all went really well,” Dye revealed.

The profitable 2024 trading was highlighted by a $320,000 son of Shocking named A Little Arrogant who was sold to syndicator MyRacehorse and Lindsay Park after winning an Avondale barrier trial in September for Matamata-based trainer Glen Old.

“MyRacehorse bought him and we have sold two others who went to Hong Kong,” he said.

“My people have permits (for Hong Kong) if they want to race them, but they want to get into the aspect of selling them. So they’re selling the good ones and trading them.”

Signing under the banner of PAK Fung, Dye’s group of investors this year bought another four two-year-olds, by Super Seth, Peltzer, Star Turn and Sword Of State respectively, for between $100,000 and $200,000.

“You’re trying to buy a sprinting type who isn’t that small, but it doesn’t always work out like that,” says Dye of his selection approach. 

“Last year I fell in love with a Shocking who had a staying pedigree and we paid a bit of money for him, more than what Shockings go for, but he was sold pretty quickly to Australia.

“You don’t always end up buying what you’re looking for when (focusing on) Hong Kong, and as my clients know, Hong Kong’s not the only market. 

“Australia’s getting very, very big, and they’re looking for more of the same type of horse.”

The ex-jockey, however, doesn’t consider himself to be a bloodstock guru for hire and if you see him at a yearling sale it won’t be for anything more than a social occasion.

“I don’t make out I’m an oil scientist or anything like that at the yearling sales. I think yearlings are a lottery. I’ve got no idea,” Dye said..

“You come to a sale, and many good judges have bought champion horses, but they’ve also bought a lot of duds, and that’s just the way it goes. 

“What someone sees, someone else doesn’t see, right? With me, my advantage is when they start galloping. I’ve always been able to pick good actions. 

“You also see how they carry their head when they’re galloping. You can see their temperament a little bit, whether they’re sweating up. For Hong Kong, you don’t want horses that are sweating up because it’s not the right environment for them.”

As a jockey, Dye rode four winners of the Golden Slipper – Courtza (1989), Tierce (1991), Burst (1992) and Canny Lad (1999) – which he says also backed up his ability to identify a talented horse at an early age.

“When I was riding in Australia I was always able to pick out the best two-year-olds, so I’ve got an advantage. But if I’m going to a yearling sale, I do not have an advantage at all,” he said.

“I’m just a no-one, but once they start galloping, I have a fair idea of their actions, and the four (horses) we bought last year were all very successful.”

In and out of the saddle, Dye has never been afraid to cast an opinion, nor a controversial one at that, and it’s served him well but it’s also arguably deprived him of certain employment opportunities.

For that reason, he has also been cautious in what media outlets he’s aligned himself with over the years.

In what started out as a “favour” to form analyst and racing personality Clint Hutchison, Dye is now a regular panelist on the weekly Hutchi’s Honkers podcast and TV show, which is hosted by Jason Richardson. 

Dye also semi-regularly provides tips and insight into Australia’s big races for corporate bookmaker EliteBet.

“It would be very hard for me to work for a racing body if they didn’t want the truth because I’m there giving my opinion, which is the truth,” he says. 

“Sometimes it’s not what people want to hear. But I’ve always been the same and I always will be. Some people love it; some don’t.

“But opinions make it interesting and that’s what makes racing.”