Trainer's season ends early (again) following accident
"I don't know what happened, he must have got a fright or spooked and he bolted out of the truck and sent me flying."
Jamie Searle is a long-time Southland racing writer. For more of his work head to the Southland Thoroughbreds Facebook page.
Trainer Nikki Blatch is recovering at home after a horse truck accident put her in hospital with a broken arm.
The break is high up in the left arm and close to the shoulder. It required surgery at Dunedin Hospital recently.
She and husband Barrie, who are owner-trainers at Tapanui, regularly race their horses at Southland meetings. However, the trips south are over for the season with the accident forcing them to spell their small team of horses.
Nikki said: "I was unloading a horse off the truck. I don't know what happened, he must have got a fright or spooked and he bolted out of the truck and sent me flying off the side of the ramp and onto the ground."
Nikki was in hospital for nearly a week before being discharged on February 29.
She cannot do weight bearing activities with the arm for six weeks and her medical certificate says no work for three months.
The Blatches are the only thoroughbred trainers at Tapanui and Nikki rides the team in training/trackwork.
"If we lived somewhere where there's track work riders, We could keep going, but because where we live, we can't get people to come here and work them [horses] . . . and we can't take them to Gore or Invercargill every day [to get track work riders].
"That's the way it is, I'm not going to stress out about it."
One of their horses, Mr Intelligence, has won seven races, including two cup races. He was second in the Waikouaiti Cup in January. Divine Regulus who won at the New Zealand Cup meeting at Christchurch in November, is owned by clients of the stable and will soon be transferred to Timaru trainer Stephanie Faulkner to continue his racing campaign.
Interestingly, the Blatches closed their stable early last season when Nikki underwent planned shoulder surgery in May, 2023.
Nikki said there were 10 horses on the books for next season, which starts on August 1.