Racing: Walker ends comeback season with 78 wins

Michael Walker rode Queen Sabeel to victory yesterday and ended the 2008-09 season with 78 wins and sixth place on the jockeys' premiership - an amazing effort as he did not begin the season until December after suffering life-threatening head injuries in a pighunting accident in May last year.

Appropriately, James McDonald won the last race yesterday, giving him the jockeys' premiership with 125 wins, 13 clear of Sam Spratt.

McDonald, still an apprentice, rode Last Blast to win earlier on the card.

McDonald and Spratt, who had a superior record in group one races for the season, will vie for the Jockey of the Year title at the national racing awards next month.

Michael Coleman finished third on the premiership with 106 wins, ahead of Buddy Lammas with 96.

Mark Walker did not have a runner at Ruakaka, but was a runaway winner of the trainers' premiership with 102 wins, 29 ahead of Murray and Bjorn Baker.

Last year's winner Michael Pitman was five wins back third.

Walker finished only two wins short of the New Zealand record of 104, achieved by Dave and Paul O'Sullivan in 1993. Eleven of Walker's wins were at group or listed level.

- NZPA