Racing: 100th win reward for jockey Tegan Newman after multiple injuries

Tegan Newman had Chevron in full flight at Ruakaka. Photo / Trish Dunell

A frustrating wait for jockey Tegan Newman ended at Ruakaka on Saturday when she claimed the final two races on the card to bring up her 100th career victory.

The bubbly 26-year-old had been sitting agonisingly on 99 career wins when she had one taken off her due to the disqualification of Explosive Miss from a win at Tauranga in March, however victories aboard Rubyshowoff and Chevron to close out the Ruakaka meeting brought up the special milestone.

She notes it could have come a little earlier if not for considerable time spent on the sidelines due to injuries from various falls and incidents over the past five years.

She spent the first four months of 2021 recuperating from a nasty trackwork fall that has left her with ongoing issues in her chest and back that require regular physiotherapy sessions and the use of painkillers, while earlier this year another fall saw her off the scene for eight weeks after suffering a brain bleed due to a head injury.

"I think I must have made my physio a fortune in the last couple of years as I seem to be there twice a week on a regular basis," she said.

"The bad fall I had at the end of 2020 means I still have problems with my back and chest and despite all the therapy, cortisone injections and other remedies they still haven't worked out what is wrong and causing the pain I get.

"I've also been knocked out this season as well as suffering a hip injury in another fall so I seem to be pretty accident-prone.

"Funnily enough, I said to someone the other day I hardly ever fall off at trackwork, just at the trials and at the races and the next morning I got dumped off one at the track so I probably should have kept my mouth closed."

Newman sits on 35 wins for the season, just two short of her record, and is keen to establish a new mark before the end of July.

"I feel things are finally falling into place and I have a number of people to thank, especially the trainers and owners who stayed loyal to me.

"With all the issues I've had people probably think I'm mad going out there every day, but I just love it and if you have that passion, you just want to be involved as much as you can."

- NZ Racing Desk