Racing: Buzz out of spring for trainer

Sheila Laxon has suffered a double blow - she has fallen off another horse and her chances of repeat Melbourne Cup glory this season are over.

Laxon, who trained Ethereal to win the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in 2001, broke some ribs in a fall recently.

"I had another tumble while riding a horse a couple of weeks back, which is something I'm making a habit of," she told the Herald-Sun newspaper.

"I ended up breaking a couple of the same ribs I broke when I had the nasty fall a couple of years ago."

Laxon said she was just starting to feel better when vets informed her that promising stayer Nothin' Leica Win had a serious leg injury.

"The buzz has gone out of my spring now," she said.

Nothin' Leica Win had been tipped as a chance in this year's cups, but ran a poor last in the JRA Cup at Moonee Valley on September 23.

"She's always been a bit iffy in the off-side knee and that was the problem," Laxon said. "They seem to think it doesn't look good for her as a long-term racing prospect, but I'm not giving up yet."

Laxon has had a horror run with falls from horses over the years.

She suffered serious head injuries in a race fall at Gisborne in 1991, but battled back to be a successful trainer.

Just under three years ago, she broke six ribs, punctured a lung and fractured her hip in a fall from a young horse at home, while last year she broke an elbow in another fall.

- NZPA