By MIKE DILLON
Lance O'Sullivan's telephone keeps ringing.
And the racetrack results are showing the effect.
The 10-times champion jockey is starting to ride winners with the regularity we came to expect three or four years ago.
The four victories he posted at Te Rapa on Saturday should have been five - and he scored on his first two mounts at Ellerslie yesterday, following up with wins on Bula Bula and Bawalaksana.
But the agony has only just ended.
Lance has been back riding for 13 months after a year and a half in the racing wilderness.
The sight of O'Sullivan destroying the Moonee Valley running rail after his ride crashed through the fence on Cox Plate day was sickening and that forced the lay-off.
The comeback from the crash that so badly shattered one of his legs has been a nightmare for O'Sullivan.
The pain came in three waves.
Blinding when he tried to get his leg back into shape.
Frustrating when the leg would not do when he knew it should be to start his comeback.
Devastating when he knew he was back to his best, but the phone simply wouldn't ring.
"A few months ago I knew I was riding really well, but I couldn't get on the horses that could win; the horses that could do something."
Regardless of what sport you play, or at what level, take a year and a half off and the rythym is missing.
The groove. The confidence.
Add to that a leg which was so badly broken, threequarters of a century ago surgeons probably would have amputated it and you have a major problem in an endeavour like race riding in which balance and timing are critical.
"I was so frustrated I could have given it up, but my pride wouldn't let me," said O'Sullivan candidly yesterday.
"Some of my good friends were saying: "You don't need to do this."
"They weren't saying: "You can't do this," simply that I didn't need to financially."
Twelve months ago to the day on Saturday at Te Rapa Colin Jillings balled O'Sullivan out for his ride on a 3-year-old stable member.
At the $500,000 Mercedes Super Bonus Classique victory presentation for Flying Babe's win Jillings was happy to recall the incident that a year later he said had turned into a "peaches and cream" association.
The perfectionist in O'Sullivan was screaming a year ago.
It made him try everything in those first few dark few months.
"I'd go home and switch saddles.
"I'd change my irons, but my leg wouldn't do what I knew it had to do to perform at my best."
He said yesterday his wife Bridgette has been his harshest critic.
"She's a great supporter, but if she thinks I haven't ridden well, boy, she's going to tell me.
"I suppose that's better than saying everything's fine when everyone else is bagging you."
O'Sullivan's other great support has been statistician Stu Laing.
"Right through my career Stu has been a tower of strength, but this time back he's been fantastic.
"When I've won Stu would say: "Great ride", when they didn't it was: "The horse wasn't up to it."
Today the nightmare of O'Sullivan's leg is not even a factor when he is on a horse.
"Sometimes when I get into bed I get pins and needles, but when I'm on a horse I'm never aware I've ever broken the leg."
The old timing is back.
"I feel part of the horse again now," he said as he climbed off Bawalaksana after win No 4 in the Schofields of Newmarket Open yesterday.
"And I feel proud that I've kept going and mastered it when most would have given up.
"I want to retire when things are going good, not bad."
Racing: Lance happy to finally be back where he belongs
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