Rochelle Lockett, injured in a race fall at Flemington on Tuesday, managed to retain her sense of humour from her Epworth Hospital bed in Melbourne yesterday.
The 28-year-old Wanganui jumps jockey crashed at the fifth fence on the Eric Musgrove-trained Gilligan during the running of the opening hurdle event on the
Melbourne Cup day card.
Lockett smashed the top of her pelvis and cracked the wings of two vertebrae in her lower back, but remembers little of the crash other than she was clear of other runners when the horse hit the fifth fence and fell.
"It could have been worse," she said.
" I could have broken my hip joint which would have taken ages to heal."
"The doctors tell me I can't get on my feet for at least a week, but as soon as I'm up and about on crutches I can come home.
Her sense of humour remained intact though.
When contacted, Lockett asked if a message could be passed on to her touch team, saying that she wouldn't be available to play this week.
"I'm on painkillers but I'm still a bit sore.
"I can't remember much about the fall, although I wasn't knocked unconscious," she said.
Despite the fall, Lockett was still able to catch up with older brother Tony who had won a free day trip to the cup in a brewery competition.
"We were to meet at a pre-arranged spot on course, but we actually met in the ambulance," Lockett said.
"He also phoned me in hospital before he left."
Lockett was visited by the wife of Gilligan's trainer on Tuesday and had talked to her boss, Wanganui trainer Kevin Myers.
"I've had a call from Marie Payne [a Kiwi jockey based in Victoria] and she's coming up to see me sometime too," she said.
Lockett said she aimed to be back home in two or three weeks, but was unsure how long it would take to get back in the saddle.
The fall was Lockett's second at Flemington.
Earlier this year Lockett was brought down when riding the Myers-trained Stacey Jones in the Australian Grand National Hurdle.
A few weeks later the pair ran second in a support jumping race on Australian Grand National Steeple day at Flemington.
"I now own real estate at Flemington near the 800 metre mark and the finishing post," Lockett jokingly said about her raceday falls in Melbourne.
- NZPA
