Nicholas' love for racing strengthens her resolve to ride again
"I'll just have to see how this injury repairs itself. I know there's other things in life but this is where I am at the moment . . , my passion is racing."
Jamie Searle is a long-time Southland racing writer. For more of his work head to the Southland Thoroughbreds Facebook page.
Injured apprentice Elen Nicholas wants to race-ride again but if it's not possible, she will go down another career path in the racing industry.
"I love it," she said of the sport.
The Waikato rider made a trip to Invercargill in the spring and won on Our Flash Harry and finished a close third on Midnight Runner in the Winton Cup. Our Flash Harry was subsequently sold and exported to Hong Kong.
Nicholas hoped to ride at more Southland race meetings this season, but injuries have delayed her return. Her priority is to recover from breaking a leg in three places in a race day accident at Hastings in January.
She's doing what the medical experts say to have the best chance of getting back to riding later this year.
"I'll just have to see how this injury repairs itself. I know there's other things in life but this is where I am at the moment . . , my passion is racing," the Cambridge woman said.
"It's basically a year and a half I've ridden out of nearly a four-year apprenticeship which is quite sad."
Nicholas has six times been injured in riding accidents since signing up as an apprentice in 2020, but the latest injury is the worst.
It happened at Hastings on January 25. Nicholas broke her left leg in three places in a race fall when another horse brought her down just after the winning post.
Fellow apprentice jockey Tayla Mitchell accompanied her to hospital.
"It'll be at least another six months before I can ride again," Nicholas, 27, said.
"It's pretty hard but it's not forever . . . I don't want to quit riding."
She can walk without crutches and makes regular visits to the stable of her partner Shaun Phelan, to whom she is apprenticed to. The visits keep Nicholas in touch with work colleagues and helps to take her mind off the injury.
Before the latest injury, in late January, she had 19 wins for the season and was looking to target the national apprentices' premiership title.
"I really wanted to see if I could have a shot at winning the apprentices' premiership . . . it's frustrating to not know what could have happened," Nicholas said.
Nicholas' other injury this season happened when her mount reared up and came down fracturing the apprentice's left ankle before a race at Wingatui in October. She was taken to Dunedin Hospital by Janine Barnes, mother of Waikato jockey Courtney Barnes who was also riding at Wingatui that day.
"I'm very grateful to Janine. She took me to hospital and stayed with me until I had my X-rays," Nicholas said.
"Janine really looked after me. She was a South Island mum [to me]."
Nicholas got released in the early hours of the next day and went to the Barnes family home to rest up before Debbie Kennedy drove her to Momona Airport for her journey to Cambridge via Hamilton.
A friend of Nicholas, Jake Barham, picked her up from Hamilton Airport and drove her home to Cambridge.
Courtney Barnes flew back north several hours after the Wingatui races finished. She took with her Nicholas' riding gear, flew to Auckland and drove Nicholas' car from the airport to Nicholas' home in Cambridge.
The fractured ankle kept Nicholas away from riding for two months.
Meanwhile, returning to the early days of Nicholas's recovery from the fall at Hastings on January 25, she was determined to attend the Karaka yearling sales in early February.
Nicholas owned 50 percent of a filly, whom Diana and Caroline Kennedy bred and earmarked for the sales. The filly went through the sale ring and was bought by Cambridge trainers Roger James and Robert Wellwood for $150,000.
The filly was a foal at foot when Nicholas noticed her on a visit to the Kennedies' farm at Cambridge. The foal was by Proisir out of three-win mare Sentito, whom Nicholas won a race on at Avondale in July, 2020.
Nicholas asked the Kennedies if she could buy 50 percent of the filly's ownership and they agreed.
The filly was scheduled to go through the sale ring the day after Nicholas had surgery on her leg.
Nicholas was determined to be at Karaka.
"I wanted to watch her go through the ring . . . it was a massive buzz."
The Karaka sales experience was a morale boost for Nicholas during a difficult time in her life.
Missing out on rides on race day is hard to take.
"You lose horses [race rides] but the people [in racing] always support you.
"The people will always be there even if the horses will change.The races will always be there, so there will always be something for when you come back."
Nicholas hails from Wales.Outside her employment hours working in stables in the UK she competed in amateur riders' races there. To have rides in the amateur riders' races she bought cheap horses.
"They were wonderful old and lovely horses. I'm very grateful to them because I had winners from them, but they cost a lot to run, so it was a hobby.
"It was my dream to do it [riding] as a profession, but really it was a hobby [for me in the UK].
"In New Zealand I had an opportunity to do it and get paid. It was a no-brainer to do it, to make it my life out here."
She came to New Zealand to work for Hastings jumps trainer Paul Nelson in the autunm/winter of 2018. She began race riding in NZ that year.
With jumps racing being an autumn/winter sport, Nicholas split a 12-month period into riding in NZ for six months and six months in the UK. That's how she spent 2018 and 2019.
Nicholas moved permanently to NZ at the end of 2019. In 2020 she signed up as an apprentice with Cambridge trainer Andrew Campbell.
After six months Cambell retired and she transferred her apprenticeship to Shaun Phelan, whom she still works for and now they are a couple.