KEY POINTS:
Ask Michael Walker how the accident that nearly killed him has changed his life and the answer suggests not that much.
"I'm better looking now," says the champion jockey.
That is the sort of quip only those infused with Walker's unshakeable confidence could produce when talking about his nightmare last six months.
Walker, the poster boy of New Zealand racing, nearly died when he fell down a cliff while pig hunting at Mt Messenger on May 19.
Doctors thought the severe head injuries might kill the 24-year-old and he spent the next three months in hospital and a rehabilitation centre.
"It wasn't real good back then," says Walker. "I can remember the accident, a lot of blood, but I am not going to think back on that."
Walker instead prefers to look forward, to his first day back riding.
While he has not set a date, it could be before Christmas judging by his progress this week.
Walker was set to ride at the Paeroa trials yesterday before they were abandoned and could be back in the saddle at the Cambridge trials tomorrow.
A few outings at the trials and
the pressure will go on to return
to race riding, as so many trainers would dearly love to have him on
their horses for the rich holiday races.
Walker says he won't be pressed. "I will come back when I am ready and only I will know when that is."
Walker says the accident has left him with no lingering weight or co-ordination problem, just a couple of scars on his face. Hence the "better looking" quip.
Walker emerged from obscurity to rewrite the record books before he turned 20. He then hit the headlines after moving to Australia where his social life curtailed his riding career.
He returned to New Zealand two years ago and quickly re-established himself as the best New Zealand rider of his generation.
He wants that title back.
