Racing: Trainer's tribute to brave riders

Trainer Graeme Sanders says there should be a medal struck for the bravery of jockeys.

That's not a common call - trainers are generally groaning about jockeys.

Selfish and underworked with their financial outlay in the boot of their car, while trainers are required to secure a property, often extremely expensive, to train from. That's what you generally hear.

Sanders wants his sympathy for the toughness of jockeys known as he watches his son-in-law Mark Sweeney battle with a badly broken leg in Waikato Hospital.

Sweeney broke the leg in three places when one of Sanders' horses crashed into the outside running rail at Tuesday's Cambridge barrier trials.

Fortunately it was not the leg Sweeney fractured in a race fall at Rotorua nearly a decade ago, an incident that kept him from riding for a lengthy period.

A rod was inserted into Sweeney's leg on Tuesday night and he is to have skin grafts to cover one of the wounds today. There are also several smaller bone breaks apart from the three major compound fractures.

"He's not very comfortable right now," said Debbie Sweeney.

"The one they are skin grafting first is a nasty wound and there is another one they suspect they may have to skin graft, but they haven't made a decision on that yet.

"They'll wait to see if the first one takes and there is no infection."

Graeme Sanders shakes his head.

"They're the toughest blokes out," he says. "They deserve medals.

"I've seen Mark badly hurt and I saw Gary [Grylls] involved in the worst moment I've seen in horse racing three weeks ago.

"This horse Gary was riding at the track stood on its hind legs, crashed over backwards and landed straight on top of Gary.

"I thought he'd be dead, but he jumped up, shook himself and said: "I'm all right".

"I said like hell you are, go home. He was badly knocked around, but three days later he was back riding at the track.

"They're tougher than you and I, I can tell you."

Which highlights the danger aspect for jockeys.

The 2004 Auckland Cup-winning jockey Gemma Sliz had her first ride at Matamata yesterday since breaking three vertebrae in her lower back and breaking her foot in a race fall at Ruakaka last December.

Surgeons told her she had come as close to being paralysed as you can.

Apprentice Troy Harris tempted the odds when he smashed both femurs careering into a running rail upright at Poverty Bay races. He is making a remarkable recovery.

Senior jockey Peter Johnson was similarly lucky. Johnson was badly knocked around when he fell on the home bend at Ellerslie a month ago, and emerged with only two breaks to one arm.

The arm already had screws in it following an accident Johnson had shearing sheep on his farm a few years ago. The screws were removed and a plate inserted and Johnson says he should get a clearance on April 19 to start the process that will reinstate his successful career.

"The staples and the bandage have gone, there is no pain and the wrist and fingers are working.

"And, I don't shear sheep any more."

Mark Sweeney is one of racing's most popular jockeys. Peter Johnson says he will travel to Hamilton in a couple of days to visit him.

"Mark was good enough to come and see me in hospital - he's a real gentleman."

Sweeney, Johnson, Harris and Sliz are a quartet who encountered injury, but can still be counted lucky.

At Riverton two weeks ago, Sam McRae was not.

Work hazards

* Te Awamutu jockey Mark Sweeney has three compound fractures of a leg and several additional breaks.

* The horse he was riding smashed into the outside running rail at the Cambridge barrier trials.

* Sweeney will undergo a skin graft today.