Mother keeps bedside vigil as jockey battles head injury after horrific spill

Sarah Macnab, in the family tartan silks made famous by her grandfather David Henry MacNab, enjoys a break between races at Waverley.

The prognosis looks bright for injured Whanganui jockey Sarah Macnab.

The 19-year-old, apprenticed to Whanganui trainer Kevin Myers, sustained head injuries in a race fall at Woodville last Friday. Macnab was rounding the bend in race four on the card when the horse she was riding for her boss, Middagurd, fell and slammed Macnab into the track head-first.

The meeting was delayed several races while a helicopter was called to ferry the young rider to hospital. The horse suffered a blood nose consistent with impact rather than an internal bleed.

After several days in hospital Macnab was transferred to the ABI Rehabilitation unit in Porirua which specialises in head injury cases.

Initially Macnab was drifting in and out of consciousness, but now is fully conscious, although sleeping a lot.

Her mother Jane and sister Nicky have been bedside in Porirua since Monday evening keeping vigil.

"Sarah will be here for a few weeks yet, but she's on the improve," Nicky Macnab said on Wednesday.

"She is conscious and very well physically, it's more a memory thing. Sarah is sleeping quite a lot and even getting up to go to the shower is exhausting. She is a bit forgetful at times and is working with the physio staff and the memory specialists. The prognosis is good. She is in the best place possible given her injury. The doctors and staff here are amazing."

Nicky MacNab said the level of support from friends and wellwishers around the country had also been amazing and the family were grateful for that support.

"Sarah keeps telling the doctors and staff she needs to get back home and see how her horses are. She is intent on getting back in the saddle, there will be no stopping her."

The young Macnab grew up around horses on the family farm in the Makirikiri Valley in Upokongaro and was always destined to become a jockey - it was in her genes.

As a 17-year-old Macnab scooped the pool, winning all the prizes available to New Zealand amateur jockeys in 2016.

The then Year 12 Whanganui Girls' College student won the coveted Duke of Gloucester Cup and won the Flair Amateur Jockey Series that season.

In thoroughbred breeding terms Macnab was always a solid bet. She is the third in her family to either win the series or the Duke of Gloucester Cup, the Holy Grail for amateur riders.

Grandfather David Henry Macnab began his long involvement in racing as an amateur jockey, winning three Duke Of Gloucester Cups with horses he owned. He rode Red Lancer himself and trained the other pair, Sporting Luca and Jack Of Hearts back in the 1940s.

Meanwhile, uncle Scotty Macnab won the Duke of Gloucester Cup last year and has won three Flair Series.

Sarah Macnab posted her first wins as a fully-fledged jockey at the Reefton meeting at Greymouth in January, 2017.

The teenager has been indentured to Myers since turning professional late in 2016.
Macnab won the first and last on the eight-race Reefton card on a day her boss and mentor won five races, including two quinellas.

Her last win as an amateur was in September 2016 and it took 22 rides to break her professional duck.

She rode 30 winners last season as a professional to finish 30th on the national jockey's premiership table. Since the beginning of this season on August 1, Macnab has ridden five winners.

Meanwhile, northern jockey Maija Vance was not as fortunate after sustaining serious injuries following fall from Zedsational during a hurdle race at Rotorua on Sunday.

Vance was also helicoptered to hospital where she has since undergone surgery.

Despite her injuries, Vance has posted a positive threat on her facebook page just a day after emergency surgery. It read: "Turns out I had six broken teeth, nearly bit my tongue off, black eye, bruises and scratches all over my body, two punctured lungs full with blood, and five breaks in my spine resulting in spinal cord damage and little/no feeling or movement from my waist down. I don't know that I'll be able to walk again but won't stop trying."