Samantha Clenton will be looking to return to race riding in January
Fans of former champion NSW apprentice Samantha Clenton will get to see her ride again.
Mind you they’ve waited patiently a fair while.
Clenton was sidelined back in October of 2016 when she had a terrible fall at Scone.
By the time the medics got to her that day, she had suffered fractured vertebrae requiring surgery and a fractured left collarbone. Doctors said there was no nerve damage but they also told her she would be sidelined a very long time.
The injuries were so bad she should have just retired. But jockeys, real horse loving hoops like Clenton, are made of sterner stuff.
She set about rehabbing and she was getting close to a return to the saddle when, bang, another accident occurred. This one, a pleasant one.
She fell pregnant.
Probably an act of God, saying you’re not quite healed enough to return, so she had her baby, a bouncy boy.
“I named him Isaac and he was born in November 2017. Then in March of this year, I started riding work again for the first time since that Scone fall.”
Between motherhood and dealing with her riding passion, she had trained hard, worked even harder, got herself well and strong and trainers started giving her early morning workout mounts.
Ringcraft began to return also.
And on Tuesday of this week, two years after the horror fall, she had her first race ride.
She rode 6 for Kris Lees at the Gosford barrier trials that day and quipped; “It won’t be long now.”
Clenton rode 3 placegetters and will be looking to ride in an actual race again early January.
It has been a phenomenal fightback from where she has been.
