Champion jumps jockey Steven Pateman has made a return to the winners’ enclosure with a double at Warrnambool.
Pateman spent the latter part of the 2017 jumps season on the sidelines with a broken leg and only returned to race riding on February 7.
At his fifth ride back he guided the Nick Smart-trained Getting Leggie to victory in a hurdle at Warrnambool on Thursday.
He followed up with a highweight flat winner two races later when outsider My Four Oh Nine, a horse he also trains, was successful over 2000m.
Pateman combines riding with training a team of horses and My Four Oh Nine was his sixth winner since holding a dual licence.
However it’s the first time he’s ridden one of his horses he also trains to victory.
Dual jockey-trainer licences were introduced in Victoria at the start of the 2016/17 season and Pateman is one of 13 people in the state to hold one.
A former NSW galloper, My Four Oh Nine was purchased by his partner Jess Barton from a Scone dispersal sale last year and was first-up for Pateman on Thursday.
Pateman said the intention was for My Four Oh Nine to embark on a career over jumps.
