Brad Stewart, long considered by some of the best judges around as being amongst the top jockeys in Queensland, will undergo further surgery today … the outcome of which will go a long way towards determining his future in the saddle.
As far back now as last September, Stewart broke his pelvis in four places in an incident at the barrier trails and his recovery has been a slow work in progress since then.
“Hopefully it (the surgery) goes well. If it doesn’t go well, I might not be back,” said Stewart.
“I do have a good surgeon and he says if it goes that he thinks it will go, maybe I can get back on a horse by the end of the year and I’m hopeful that will be the case.
“He is confident it will go well, but there are no guarantees.”
So, how did the injury incident unfold?
“I was just walking around the tie-ups at the trials, just waiting for the next trial. I don’t know … the horse did a somersault or something and landed on top of me on the concrete and I broke my pelvis in four places,’ said Stewart.
You can almost feel the pain reading about it, so imagine the catastrophe experiencing it.
“Incredibly, straight after it happened, I didn’t feel that much pain,” explained Stewart. “I think I must have been in shock in the moment … but that didn’t take long to change before I was in awful, awful pain.
“The injuries could have been worse … so you have got to look at it in that context and just keep moving forward.
‘I’ve been lucky with injuries throughout my career. This is certainly the worst I have had so I can’t complain too much.”
And how has Stewart been coping with his situation?
“Ordinarily I would say no good, but we’ve got a new-born baby … actually, she is five months old now … so being out with the injury has allowed me to spend lots of time with her.
“Just taking it slowly and being with her has been good.”
The recovery process and family time will still be the state of play for several months to come but, hopefully, it will all be a path leading back to race riding with Stewart ultimately being able to resume a roll in which he has excelled for so long.
