Jenny Duggan’s win on Milkman for trainer Matthew Smith at Warwick Farm today was her third win from five rides at Metropolitan venues in Sydney since the start of the month.
Remember this is a racing space dominated by Messrs McDonald, Bowman, Berry and others … so Duggan’s results translate into an outstanding performance.
The back story of Duggan’s emergence from where she was sixteen months ago to where she is now is as impressive.
Duggan was involved in a serious fall on Scone Cup Day on May 15 last year. She was airlifted to the John Hunter Hospital from where, not long afterwards she tweeted, ‘I’m feeling very lucky to be writing this. I’m in John Hunter still doing tests. So far I have a fracture in the bottom of my skull, some bleeding on my brain, broken nose, concussion … and we are still working out what’s happening with my shoulder.’
Her fighting spirit and determination was very evident in her tweet and when she added … a little while later in her recovery … that she would be back in the saddle as soon as possible, nobody doubted that she would do exactly what she said she was going to do.
Duggan’s recent run of metropolitan success since the start of this month might just be a brief entry in the log of never-ending racing results … but it really does represent far more than that as it emphasises the fact that, while the fall could break bones it could not break the will of a jockey who never ever considered backing away from her profession … even in those most dire of circumstances … and who therefore deserves to celebrate every bit of success that she achieves.
