Two broken bones in her lower leg don’t seem to have reduced champion jockey Danielle Johnson’s energy levels much.
The premiership winner was already planning her escape from Auckland Hospital just hours after suffering the injuries in a shocking home-stretch fall at Ellerslie on Saturday.
Johnson was dislodged from hot favourite Gold Watch in the closing stages of the Rich Hill Mile, with her actual fall looking no worse than many other racing incidents but the shock value coming in the loss soon after of Gold Watch.
But the angle Johnson landed on at speed saw her suffer two breaks in her right lower leg. She was taken by ambulance to Auckland Hospital where her leg was placed in a cast until she could be examined by a bone specialist late on Saturday night and she had surgery on Sunday morning.
“We think she has had a rod inserted in the bone and maybe even a plate but we will know a lot more when she comes out of recovery,” said Johnson’s mother Annabelle from the hospital.
“So it looks like she will be in here for a few more days which she won’t like.
“She rang her father Peter at 9.30pm on Saturday night and was trying to tell him she would be going home that night.
“And then today she was trying to tell Jamie (Richards, Danielle’s partner) and me she would only be in for one more day.
“So not much has changed with her apart from her having a broken leg.”
Johnson is no stranger to the danger of race riding, having spent months on the sideline after a much worse fall at Ruakaka on November 2018.
That left her with three fractures in her collarbone but she fought back to win the national jockey’s premiership last season by a remarkable 60 victories, riding 151 winners for the season.
She was a close third on the premiership before Saturday’s accident which brings into question whether she will ride here again before a proposed move to Hong Kong with Richards over the winter.
Stipendiary stewards found no jockey was at fault in the incident as while Gold Watch had come together with a rival at the 250m mark that is not deemed to have been a factor in his breaking down.
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