KEY POINTS:
Two neurosurgeons will decide in the next week when Waikato jockey Michael Walker will return to race riding, and it might be sooner than you think.
Walker yesterday took a giant step towards resuming his glittering career when he rode for the first time at a barrier trial meeting at Cambridge.
There was no sign of the injuries that nearly killed him in a fall while pig hunting in northern Taranaki late in May.
It was an extremely fit-looking Walker who showed up yesterday.
He said he was "walking" 54kg, only a couple of kilos heavier than his normal riding weight.
"I'm a bit nervous," he admitted.
Certainly not nervous about jumping on a 500kg horse and riding tight at 60km/h, but he's been through an awful lot since his record-breaking career was suddenly halted six months ago.
Perhaps the four television crews monitoring his every move didn't help.
Walker finished fourth on his first ride on Sunshine Park and scored a runaway victory on his second, Santangelo, owned by his mates, New Zealand Bloodstock principals Peter and Philip Vela, and trained by Mark Walker.
Walker was cleared to ride at barrier trials by his own neurosurgeon, who is acting in conjunction with the neurosurgeon contracting to the industry's ruling body, NZ Thoroughbred Racing.
Acting chief stipendiary steward John Oatham, who was at Cambridge yesterday, said: "I understand Michael now has to go back to his neurosurgeon from where a decision will probably be made on when he can return to raceday riding.
"From what I'm told they are quite happy with his progress to this point."
Walker himself was a little guarded about his actual return. "I want to get today out of the road before I say anything," he said.
But he's extremely happy with his physical condition. "I'm fit. Very fit."
It showed.
It is yet another example of how jockeys astound medical science with their ability to recover from serious injury at a rate more than twice as fast as the average human.
Superb original fitness levels are obviously one of the markers.
