THE injury-plagued career of star apprentice jockey Madison Lloyd should be back on track at Swan Hill this Friday – her home track in her home town.
The first apprentice, and only the second female jockey, to win the prestigious $200,000 Wangoom Handicap earlier this year, the now Ballarat-based rider was in hospital the next day to confirm she was riding with a broken leg.
This was on top of her bad fall at Dunkeld in November last year, which left her with delayed concussion before, three months later, she fell again at Kilmore.
Her Dunkeld fall was a bad one and sidelined her for two weeks after concerns about hitting her head, leaving her groggy and confused.
Before the Wangoom, Lloyd actually broke her leg six days earlier during yet another trackwork fall – this one at Wangaratta on April 29 – but kept riding with what she described as “a sore leg”.
“I had the seat on Jucconi the next day at Sandown and I didn’t want to miss that, but even so had to get cleared by the race-day doctor to ride (she finished second),” she said with a laugh.
“At Wangaratta I had been on a two-year-old doing jump outs and he was a bit scared of all the barrier people and reared up and I was hanging on to his head gear but didn’t want him to flip over, so I let go and fell to the track.
“I landed on my left ankle, and felt a pop, and grabbed my leg in the same area where the bone turned out to be broken, and in the end some of the boys on the barrier had to carry me from the track.
“It was sore, and I had been advised to go and get it thoroughly checked but being me I sort of put that off for the time being.
“I wasn’t doing much so I just took a few painkillers and headed for Warrnambool.”
The rest is, as they say, history with the feisty apprentice with the megawatt smile toughing it out for a barnstorming victory in one of the most sought-after race prizes in regional Victoria.
In the end, however, Lloyd couldn’t hide the fact she was hurt, and limping everywhere is not a good look for jockeys.
“Because it is my left leg, people throwing me on to the horse’s back in the mounting yard had to be very careful because that could really hurt.”
She was ordered onto the sidelines for six weeks – although Lloyd being Lloyd, she made an appointment for just four weeks later with Racing Victoria chief medical officer Dr Gary Zimmerman “just in case”.
She said the leg was X-rayed several weeks later as part of the decision made about her return to work.
Which means the 21-year-old might actually have taken the best medical advice and made sure her leg was non weight-bearing for at least three weeks.
Lloyd’s only problem then was how to keep fit and, most importantly, for a person who lives to ride, how to not go out of her mind with boredom.
“I’ve had a few injuries before, but I’ve been pretty lucky and never had a broken bone – until now.
“I’ve tried to watch one movie but couldn’t see it through, and I have been keeping up to date through racing.com, but I’m not a movie person, and I’m definitely not a sit still for a month person,” she said.
But she was the one with the broken leg, and no amount of impatience was going to make it knit any faster.
Lloyd was given the medical all-clear to resume riding a month ago but conceded she had been taking things slowly after this relatively lucky escape, despite saying she was having no trouble with her leg.
“I’ve been doing 12 or so lots every morning and been riding in trials for the past few weeks,” Lloyd said.
“My first racing since the broken leg will be Swan Hill (Friday) – I’ve got one for the bosses (the McEvoys) and another for Nathan (the Swan Hill-based Hobson, her former master).
“Then I will be at Echuca (Saturday) and already have one ride booked with Nathan. I’m not sure yet but I might also be at Donald on the Sunday.
“For a while I won’t be having more than three rides at a meeting.”
Lloyd was due to complete her training in March next year but injury time has extended that another four months.
She said she was hoping to get there without another incident so she can join the senior ranks.
Lloyd’s moment in the headlines was all about being on a high the day of the 142nd running of the Wangoom and way down there in the dumps the next day as the full extent of her injury – her “sore leg” – was revealed.
Her fibula had been snapped into two, which makes race fans wonder about her pain threshold when she stood in the irons as she drove Frankie Pinot to victory in the prestigious $200,000 blue ribbon race.
X-rays showed the extent of that break, but Lloyd was adamant the injury was no longer giving her any grief, and the days of the moon boot and being stuck inside with only the TV to help her pass the time are long gone.
In her own words, her falls, her delayed concussion and various other aches and pains were “nothing too serious”, although she does concede the fall at Dunkeld did cause some concerns.
She’s not even expressing public regrets that her apprenticeship has been extended those four months.
Instead, she was determined “to make sure every part of this recovery is done right so I don’t have any problems down the track”.
