KEY POINTS:
Jockey Sam Spratt was the toast of Trentham after her win on Mufhasa in the $1 million Telegraph Handicap on Saturday, six years after suffering serious head injuries in a fall at the course.
She suffered severe concussion in her 2003 Wellington Cup Day fall when her mount crashed through the running rail along the same section of the track on which the Telegraph is run.
She was sidelined for six months and her return was brief before she took what was considered retirement.
Afterwards there was marriage to top jockey Opie Bosson, birth of a son, separation from Bosson and a riding comeback after three years away from the track.
The comeback has been spectacular - for the right and wrong reasons.
She incurred several suspensions through aggressive riding tactics early last year, but this season she has cleaned up her act.
She has raced to a clear lead on the jockeys' premiership with 67 wins, 11 ahead of nearest rival James McDonald and 20 ahead of third-placed Michael Coleman.
Spratt is also the leading stakes earning jockey. So far this season her mounts have won $2.2 million in stakes from which she receives five per cent ($110,000).
Spratt, 24, recalls nothing of her fall.
"Even when I play back the tape of it, nothing registers."
Spratt said in the year after the fall she hardly remembered anything of it.
"And the bits I do remember it's sort of like a dream - you are not sure whether it's real or not."
Spratt returned to Trentham for the first time after her fall about two years ago and she thought that would have the memories come flooding back.
"But when I turned up, I didn't know where to go, I didn't know where the jockeys' room was. I had no memory of anything."
Her win on Mufhasa was a dominant one. Mufhasa was near the lead throughout, went ahead with about 300m to run and kicked clear to score by 1 lengths as a $6.90 second favourite.
"He's got an immense turn of foot," Spratt said.
"I was just giving him a slap over the shoulder but when I gave him a backhander (with the whip) he just dealt to them."
Mufhasa will be considered for the group one $200,000 weight-for-age Waikato Sprint (1400m) at Te Rapa on February 7 but Ardmore trainer Stephen McKee is already eyeing Australian riches.
They include the A$2 million Doncaster Handicap (1600m) at Randwick on April 18 and the A$1 million Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) in Brisbane in the winter.
Mufhasa is owned by Auckland insurer David Archer in partnership with son Simon, daughter Natalie and his partner Diane Wright.
Archer has had incredible success on the racetrack in the past 11 weeks. In that time he has had five important wins and Saturday's group one race was his second win at the level in three weeks.
Gallions Reach won the $200,000 weight-for-age Zabeel Classic (2000m) at Ellerslie on December 26, the group two $150,000 Counties Cup (2100m) at Pukekohe and the $100,000 weight-for-age Lindauer Stakes over 2000m at Ellerslie On Melbourne Cup Day.
That same month Mufhasa won the group two $300,000 Couplands Mile (1600m) at Riccarton.
Te Awamutu gelding Atapi stormed home from the back of the field for second, while Ruud Van Slaats, who was handy throughout, was half a length away third.
- NZPA
