New Zealand | Horse Racing Free Tips

Jockey Told She’d Never Walk Again, Back In The Saddle After Nightmare Fall

Maija Vance, the jockey who was told she would never walk again after a horrific race fall, has started riding trackwork in the latest stage of an extraordinary recovery from life-changing injuries.

In September 2018 the 29-year-old suffered 13 rib fractures and broke her back in five places with the T8 vertebra crushing her spinal cord and leaving her with no feeling or movement from the waist down.

Now she is riding out for trainer Tarissa Mitchell and even talking of one day “riding on racedays” again.

“I'm doing really good,” she said in an interview with Radio TAB Australia. “I've been working very closely with my physio, trying to get back to riding racehorses. So I've just started back on the track now and it's going really, really well.

“I'm just riding some quiet ones pacework, and hopefully will work up from there. I'm riding work for Tarissa Mitchell. She also had an accident a couple of years ago. She's been really helpful and understands.

“It's hard for me to put timeframes on things because my legs don't work like a normal person's, so I kind of just have to try and see what works for them and how long they take to recover, so I leave a few days in between when I ride trackwork to let them recover properly. Then I put my irons up a little bit and ride a bit shorter.

”I'm in a little bit of pain all the time but pain doesn't really affect me that much. The more I do in the gym and the more trackwork I do, the more I am strengthening up my back – and the more I can strengthen the better protected it is.”

Vance, from Cambridge, New Zealand, spent three months in Auckland's Spinal Rehabilitation Unit, where feeling gradually returned, and after 18 months which included time in a wheelchair and using a walker, she completed a 526-step climb to the top of Mount Maunganui.

Doctors said former jockey wouldn't walk again – but now she can climb a mountain.

She is the daughter of former jockey-turned-trainer Bob Vance, a Cox Plate winner in the saddle, and jockey Jenny Vance, who rode in her native Sweden as Jenny Moller.

Maija has ridden 175 winners in New Zealand and Australia but was having only her fourth ride over jumps when she came down on Zedsational in a hurdle race at Arawa Park. The horse's trainer Glynn Brick spent many hours with Vance while she was in hospital, but died in a car crash in March.

“They said it was pretty unlikely that I would walk again,” said Vance. “I had 13 rib fractures, which were probably the most painful. The ribs punctured my lungs so they filled up with blood and they had to drain my lungs. I had five vertebrae broken and when the T8 broke it crushed my spinal cord which was what left me paralyzed.

“Glynn Brick was there with me the whole time. He got to see me walking the mountain, which made him really happy. Glynn would have never put me on something he thought would fall, it was just very unlucky. He felt absolutely terrible. Unfortunately he passed away a few months ago.”

Nearly NZ$40,000 (£21,000) was raised to help Vance get the help she needed to walk again. Her story has been described as inspirational.

“I don't think so,” she said. “I think I am just very lucky.”

This story was originally published at horseracingplanet.com and is reprinted here with permission.

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NZ Horse Diagnosed With Novel Papilloma Virus

A 10-year-old Warmblood gelding in New Zealand was referred to a veterinary clinic with two masses on his left fetlock. The masses were each over an inch in diameter and had hard, rough surfaces. They grew rapidly in the three weeks since the horse's owner had discovered them. A piece of one of the masses was sent for microscopic evaluation and Drs. John Munday, Michael Hardcastle and Melissa Sim determined that a novel papillomavirus caused the lesions.

Papillomaviruses are double-stranded DNA viruses that tend to be host specific. There are nine equine papillomaviruses that have been sequenced; the first to be sequenced was Equus caballus type 1 (EcPV1), which causes papillomas in horses.

The masses the gelding had were most similar to EcPV1, but they didn't present in the same way: EcPV1 generally causes small masses around the face. Veterinarians treated the masses with imiquimod ad the lesions resolved in 14 weeks.

The study team noted that papillomas only develop when a host is infected by a papillomavirus for the first time, which is why warts (papillomas) typically develop in young horses. This is an additional indication that the virus that caused the lesions in the older horse is new.

Read the full study here.

Hong Kong Racing Heroes Werther, Ping Hai Star Become Welfare Ambassadors In New Zealand

Dual Hong Kong Horse of the Year Werther (NZ) (Tavistock) and Hong Kong Derby (2000m) winner Ping Hai Star (NZ) (Nom du Jeu) will add another feather to their cap this season.

The pair, who are living out their retirement at Highden Park near Palmerston North, have become New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Welfare Ambassadors and will start to visit New Zealand race tracks next Sunday to promote horse welfare post-racing.

“It is a new concept through NZTR,” said Libby Bleakley, who owns Highden Park with husband Sam. “Welfare has become such a big issue and we all need to put it to the forefront when we are breeding and racing these animals.

“They will just be called upon when needed. They will head to their first event next Sunday at the Wanganui racecourse.”

Bleakley is excited about the new concept and said it will give the two former stars of the track the opportunity to help grow the profile of the sport.

“It's such a privilege and it wasn't something we were anticipating when we rehomed the boys,” Bleakley said. “These horses love having something to do, they love having a job. They look after weanlings for us and they go on the truck to keep mares company, and I think they will thrive with this next step.”

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MG1SW Hello Youmzain Retired to Haras d’Etreham

MG1SW Hello Youmzain (Fr) (Kodiac {GB}-Spasha {GB}, by Shamardal) has been retired and will take up stud duties at Haras d’Etreham in France. Etreham and Cambridge Stud purchased the bay for stallion duty last October, and he will shuttle to Brendan and Jo Lindsay’s New Zealand property to fulfill Southern Hemisphere obligations in due course. Etreham and Cambridge joined forces to stand Hello Youmzain’s new barnmate Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in 2018. A fee for the Rabbah Bloodstock-bred will be announced later and his book will be capped at 140 mares.

“We are delighted to welcome Hello Youmzain and offer his services to French breeders,” said Nicolas de Chambure of Haras d’Etreham. “He presents a rare profile as no sprinter of this caliber has begun his stud career in France since Anabaa. He is a high-class individual with a strong physique and fantastic movement. He will be supported by a powerful syndicate and should attract mares from Ireland and England.”

Trained by Kevin Ryan, Hello Youmzain’s juvenile season was highlighted with a debut score and two starts on a win in the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte, and he returned at three to claim the G2 Sandy Lane S. at Haydock last May. Third in the G1 Commonwealth Cup S. at Royal Ascot a month later, he earned his first Group 1 badge with a win in the G1 Betfair Sprint Cup in September in his final start for owner Jaber Abdullah. Two starts later, the son of Spasha scored in the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. at Royal Ascot as a 4-year-old, and was also runner-up later this season in the G1 LARC Prix Maurice de Gheest. Hello Youmzain retires with a mark of 12-5-2-1 and $733,464 in earnings.

Said trainer Kevin Ryan, “He was a lovely horse to train, showed his class and ability at a very early stage and was such a sound horse all the way through his career. He had such a great temperament and proved to be very tough and genuine.”

Hello Youmzain is a half-brother to German/Italian highweight, MGSW-Ger, GSW-Ity, and G1 German Derby third Royal Youmzain (Fr) (Youmzain {Ire}); English SW Zuhoor Baynoona (Ire) (Elnadim); and the SP Saglawy (Fr) (Youmzain {Ire}). His second dam is a half-sister to G2 Hardwicke S. winner Sandmason (GB) (Grand Lodge), and SW & GSP Sardegna (GB) (Pharly {Fr}). This is also the family of Australian Group 1 winner Summer Passage (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}).

“Hello Youmzain will be an exciting addition to the Cambridge Stud stallion roster and the New Zealand breeding industry next year,” said Cambridge Stud CEO Henry Plumptre. “Cambridge Stud and Haras d’Etreham would like to thank Kevin Ryan and his team at Hambleton Lodge, including jockey Kevin Stott, for giving us an amazing highlight in the Diamond Jubilee at Ascot.”

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