A copybook effort aboard local runner Poker Face paved the way for talented rider Alysha Collett to make her long-awaited reappearance in the winner's enclosure following an injury-enforced break from the jockey ranks.
Collet sustained a serious injury to her L1 Lumbar vertebra, along with a fractured right heel when she fell from her mount at Kranji on October 14. Following successful spinal surgery, she spent the next six months recuperating in New Zealand before being cleared to return to race riding earlier this month.
A somewhat frustrating run of twenty-six rides without a winner came to an end in the last race of the day at Ruakaka on Saturday as she punched home the Chris Gibbs and Michelle Bradley-trained Poker Face in the rating 82, 2100m contest.
"It just feels so good to get the monkey off my back," Collett said.
"It hasn't actually been that long but it seems like an eternity since I had my last winner given what has gone on.
