Horse racing: Comeback queen already winner

Lisa Allpress riding first group 1 winner of the season on Dark Destroyer.

Comeback jockey Lisa Allpress is a winner even before she hops aboard a horse at New Plymouth on Saturday.

Because the premiership-winning rider isn’t supposed to be riding at all at the moment and wasn’t even supposed to sit on a horse again until September.

Allpress has her first big race ride in four months when she steers Old Town Road in the $85,000 Opunake Cup at New Plymouth, having had one lead-up ride on a “family horse” at Otaki last Friday.

That was after four months away from riding because a near total shoulder reconstruction in mid-March to repair damage from a Hawera jumpouts fall six years ago.

The procedure which came with some stern words from her surgeon.

“It was the same surgeon who did my hip operation a few years ago and he made me promise after the operation I wouldn’t ride a horse even in work for six months,” Allpress told the Herald.

“But about six weeks later he couldn’t believe my progress and then after three months he said I could ride again but not horses who were going to be jerking my shoulder around too much.

“So I rode at some jumpouts and then had one ride last Friday and I will have two this Saturday because I love Old Town Road, he is one of my favourites.

“Then I will start to step it up. The start of the new season will be a line in the sand and I will be right back into it.”

It is easy to forget Allpress won the first group 1 of this season when Dark Destroyer beat stars like Imperatriz and La Crique in the Tarzino at Hastings last September but what nobody forgets or doubts is Allpress’s class.

She has 1855 career wins in New Zealand alone and the determination in her voice suggests the magical 2000 mark is a personal target.

“I am still really keen to ride so I will be right back into it next season,” she says.

“I love it but I’ll admit I didn’t watch a lot of racing the first few months I was away because I found it too frustrating.

“But I am loving being back and while some people have asked me why I would bother in winter there are some nice horses coming back I have my eye on.”

While many jockeys would struggle to conjure up such enthusiasm aged 48, Allpress has always been a horse lover and also doesn’t struggle with weight, becoming a racing rarity this year: a jockey who weighed less in kgs than her age.

“I got down to 47kgs after the op, mainly through losing muscle, but I am back up to 49kgs now.”
 So how does she stay so light at a time in life when so many people start to struggle with their weight?

“I was pretty motivated to stay fit and I am only short. I’m like a minion,” she smiles.

A minion who can still ride clearly as Allpress was in contention for another premiership half way through this season and her services will be in demand once the “open for business” sign goes up next season.

New Zealand racing may have some talented young female jockeys coming through, with Tayla Mitchell extending her lead in the apprentice premiership to five with a winner at Avondale yesterday.

But there is no doubting who the Queen of the New Zealand riding ranks is. That reign starts again Saturday.