Racing: Andrew back doing what she loves

Holly Andrew is rapt to be back. Photo / Race Images PN

You might think that leading into last Saturday's race meeting at Trentham, apprentice jockey Holly Andrew would be feeling more than just a twinge of anxiety about competing at the venue where she experienced a critical incident just one year ago.

Saturday's meeting marked the 12 month anniversary of a fall from Bronsteel in the Group 3 Cuddle Stakes (1600m) that resulted in Andrew suffering major shoulder damage that again put the brakes on her promising riding career.

It was the latest in a terrible run of injuries, including those incurred in a devastating car crash in 2013, that has seen her spend more time on the sidelines in the past six years than in the saddle.

Not that that has deterred the plucky 28-year-old, who is back doing what she loves once again after resuming at Trentham in late January.

Safely through her riding return that day, Andrew has slowly built momentum to the point where any hoodoo associated with the track was laid to rest when she notched her first winner since her Cuddle Stakes fall, on the John Bary-trained On Show, at the venue on March 9.

"It felt good to ride that winner last week considering that was the track I fell at a year ago," Andrew said. "It was a little bit sentimental to ride my first winner back there. A lot of people have asked me if I had any demons about riding again at Trentham, especially by trainers, but I've been fine, as my attitude has always been to just get out there and do it."

That attitude has stood Andrew in good stead as she made her way back through long hours of rest and rehabilitation, although she admits there were some dark times.

"I found it harder [to recover] this time as, while it was a different injury to what I had suffered in the past, the pain I was in was far more intense.

"I ended up with what they call a frozen shoulder, which is usually something older women tend to get.

"They said it was a bit odd as I was young and fit, but it must have been the amount of trauma that the fall caused, which was incredibly painful. I just don't know how those poor old women go through that.

"I put a lot of weight on, far more than when I had my fall at Waverley [2016], so I did let myself go a bit which made it much harder to come back from. I knew I wanted to come back and more so as people were questioning my weight gain, that just gave me more motivation."

A decision to visit an uncle in the United States put life into perspective and back on the path to recovery.

"It was so long off, nine months without any real routine, and I started to have some real doubts," she said.

"I spent six months sitting on the couch and the pain was incredible. I was getting a bit down and feeling sorry for myself as well as angry that it had happened to me and thinking that I was hard done by.

"That's not the way to feel and I knew something had to change, so I decided to spend some time with my Uncle Jules in Reno.

"He was a jumps jockey back here in New Zealand but is over in Nevada now. He worked in the industry over there a number of years ago and took me to the races at Golden Gate in San Francisco and introduced me to some trainers and people in racing over there. That made me realise what I loved about racing and got me back on the right track."

- NZ Racing Desk