Horse racing: Wrist injury won’t hold back apprentice jockey

Kelsey Hannan wants to win the apprentice jockey title. Photo / Race Images

An annoying wrist injury and the challenges of travelling for winter racing aren’t enough to dim Kelsey Hannan’s desire to win the national apprentice jockeys title.

Which is why the 20-year-old northerner will find herself at Riccarton today trying to close the gap on rival Tayla Mitchell with three weeks of the thoroughbred season to go.

Hannan sits three wins behind Mitchell (65-62) in the race to be the country’s leading apprentice, the two young females having surged clear of Joe Kamaruddin to make the title a two-apprentice race.

They sit fifth and sixth on the overall jockeys’ premiership, no small feat given the only riders above them are Michael McNab (150 wins for the season), Craig Grylls (114), Opie Bosson (92) and Warren Kennedy (73).

Hannan and Mitchell have won their way down to a 2kg claim, Hannan’s mounts having won more money, Mitchell with the better strike rate.

Both riders re waiting for the first career black type win.

Mitchell, the daughter of four-time New Zealand Trotting Cup winning driver Todd Mitchell, has had an outstanding season but Hannan has also really arrived on the national scene and possibly could have the apprentice title sewn up but for breaking her wrist in a fall that kept her out of the saddle for 13 weeks.

“I am still having a few issues with it and went to see the doctor on Monday and we have two options,” says Hannan. “It might need surgery, but if so, we will put that off until the end of the season so I can chase the premiership.

“So I might just get a cortisone injection to get me through until then. It isn’t that bad, I’m just thinking more long term.

“I set myself a goal of trying to win the apprentice title and I still really want it, so I’m going after it.

“But Tayla isn’t making it very easy for me because she’s riding so well.”

Mitchell rides next at the Cambridge meeting tomorrow so today’s synthetic track meeting at Riccarton provides Hannan with the perfect opportunity to close the margin on a track she enjoys.

“I like riding on the Riccarton synthetic. I find you can ride your own race there more than maybe at Cambridge; I don’t know why.”

The fact Hannan even thinks like that confirms how far she has come.

She arrived on the scene clearly able to ride and seemingly fearless but with little understanding of the nuances of race riding. But she has absorbed an enormous amount of information and now understands her role enormously better than she did at the start of this season.

“I have been really lucky having so many good people around me, from Shaun [Phelan, boss], Aidan [Rodley, manager] and all the other jockeys and the trainers so I have been learning heaps.”

Hannan says Rocastano [R6, No 2] is her best chance today, the 5-year-old having already won three times on the Riccarton synthetic, including his last two under Hannan.

“He doesn’t go up in grade and there’s no reason he can’t win. I have a good book overall but also think Tap ‘n’ Go [R5, No 3] is suited to his race and is an each way chance.”

Young guns

New Zealand’s leading young jockeys this season

1 Tayla Mitchell, 65 wins.

2 Kelsey Hannan, 62 wins.

3 Joe Kamaruddin, 55 wins.

4= Wiremu Pinn (currently riding in Australia) and Lily Sutherland, 48 wins.