ABOUT US.
Lee Hope
Racing has been in Lee Hopes’ blood from a young age. He grew up surrounded by horses in Adelaide where his father held the coveted position of stable rider for the late C S Hayes. In 1965, at the age of 15, Lee commenced his apprenticeship as a jockey, and only a few years later, was leading apprentice in metropolitan Melbourne (1967-68). While an injury during Lee’s apprenticeship ended his careers as a jockey early, his passion for racing remained. After his injury, Lee worked along side trainers Ian Saunders, Geoff Murphy and Terry Millard as foreman. This sparked a passion for training and in 1976 Lee was granted his trainers license and has been training since. As well as his success as a trainer, Lee has been a great mentor for many young riders, including his stepson,Blake Shine. For the past 15 years Lee has been training in partnership with his son, Shannon. Together they have produced numerous black type winners.
SHANNON G HOPE
Shannon was born and raised in Kilmore. At the age of 14 he commenced his career in the racing industry. From school Shannon worked at his father’s stable in Kilmore and always paid close attention to the way his father trained. He knew he too would eventually one day train horses. At 19 Shannon was given special permission to train and his first winner came with a horse called Rainbow Division. This horse won 10 races whilst trained by Shannon including a win at Moonee Valley. This provided Shannon with the title of youngest trainer at the time to have trained a metropolitan winner. Although Shannon held his own licence he still worked along side his father until 1998 when he took up the position of stable foreman for Jim Mason at Mornington. After 2 years he returned home to Kilmore. Shannon’s clientele started to grow and in 2004 he had enough horses to relocate to Seymour. In April 2010 Lee and Shannon formed a training partnership which has been highly successful to date and with the current crop of horses now in work, the future of Hope Racing is looking brighter than ever.
Carol | 0488 388 315
Lee | 0418 811 049
Shannon | 0402 642 645
9 Kobyboyn Road Seymour, Victoria Australia 3660