Racing: Broken neck not enough to keep Lisa down

By MIKE DILLON

The safest bet in racing is that Lisa Cropp will race ride again.

You might not think so at the moment as she recovers from the broken neck she copped in a race fall in Macau, but then most people haven't been on the receiving end of Cropp's determination.

Rival jockeys who have had first-hand experience of it here, in Sydney, Japan and Macau won't be betting on retirement.

Ringing in Cropp's ears right now is the specialist's words that the three vertebrae breaks in her neck were worse than the ones which two months ago resulted in Hong Kong-based English jockey David Harrison becoming a tetraplegic.

But you can bet that three or four months down the line Cropp will be thinking only of the next winner she can push over the line.

After all, breaking her neck is nothing new to the Cambridge-bred horsewoman - she did it in a fall from her parents' horse at Gisborne a few years ago and came back to resume her career in Japan.

The remarkable thing about the most recent break is that she was not aware of it until a week later, after she had ridden in nine races the following weekend in Macau.

"I had a sore neck and shoulders. I took the rides and finished one second, but the next day I knew I was in trouble," she said from Macau last night.

"I went over to the hospital in Hong Kong for tests and after the x-rays they put me straight into the emergency ward.

"The specialist I'm under is the same one who treated David Harrison and he said my injuries were worse.

"He said the only thing that saved me was the very strong muscles in my neck.

"He couldn't believe I'd been riding for a week. He said if a horse had thrown its head back and struck me in the head, or if I'd tripped on a footpath, it would have been the end of my spinal cord.

"He reckons I'm pretty lucky to be walking around."

Cropp is coming home in three weeks and her parents have the unenviable task of trying to talk her into retirement.

It's what parents do, but if you know Lisa Cropp it's not something you would envy.

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Remarkable how well the tall poppy syndrome works in New Zealand.

With all the carping recently, a lot of it naturally falls on the biggest organisation, the Auckland Racing Club.

Some misguided editorial even suggested the ARC did little to help owners.

Short memories. No club in New Zealand does more for owners.

It is the only club which has free pre-race drinks for the connections of all horses on all racedays and while its track fees are a bit higher than most because it has the Takanini training centre to upkeep as well as Ellerslie, the ARC offers a track fees rebate for horses who start at Ellerslie - two starts a month and the fees are more than covered.

It will be interesting to see how many of the critics will be in the Guineas Room at Ellerslie on Saturday when the ARC hosts the owners of all horses who have raced at Ellerslis this season, close to 2500.

A free drink on arrival, a bite to eat, giveaways throughout the day and a new car given away to the owners of one of the 2500 horses looks like a pretty good deal.

It doesn't happen elsewhere.

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Nor does watching Basil Fawlty run a tray around a racetrack.

A highlight on Saturday is The Waiters' Race, sponsored by the Auckland Gas Company and organised by the Restaurant Association.

The waiters from Auckland restaurants will show their skills in heats completing an obstacle course in the birdcage with the final staged on the racetrack following race seven, with $1000 going to the individual winner and $2000 to the winning team.