Breakthrough win a relief for Kliese
NINE hundred days.
It was a long time between drinks but the monkey is finally off the back of champion jockey Graham Kliese.
The former North Queensland premiership winner stormed past the Cannon Park finishing post on board three-year-old gelding Beat It to salute for the first time since returning from a long injury lay-off.
The 51-year-old Kliese battled against all odds to return to the track following a severe leg injury, but the veteran jockey said it was another of his passions that kept him driven to get back.
For almost a decade Kliese has worked closely with the team at the Audi Centre in Townsville, and even in his darkest times when doctors had given him little chance of riding again, it was the team in the garage that kept him going.
“Jason (Collins) being the owner there, he understands racing and is supportive of my career,” Kliese said.
“That was my biggest saviour for the past two years. Not financially, but I had something to do every day. I had a purpose to get up of a morning and go to work.
“I am like the gofer there, I do banking, I get spare parts for the guys in the workshop.
“It is a great leveller for me that job. I can go out on the racetrack and ride three winners in a day and the next day I am out the front mowing the grass.”
The veteran had to dig deep to power Beat It down the home straight at Cannon Park to overcome a willing
Love Over Gold for Townsville trainer Carl Spry in the 2YO and 3YO Maiden Handicap (1250m).
While the former Cairns Cup winner admitted it was far from the biggest win of his career, it was a breakthrough that he had waited a long time for.
And the chance to celebrate it with wife Belinda, who was at the track as a strapper for the day, made it just that much sweeter.
“I don’t know if it was a big win, but it was a good win to get,” he said.
“I suppose now I can move on and everyone else can move on. They can stop asking when it is going to come. It was always going to come but it wasn’t the fairytale come back with a winner on the first day back.
“It has been a monkey off the back. It wasn’t troubling me too much but it was a talking point. I was a bit over it.
“(Having Belinda there) made it better, even if she is at work she watches them on the phone. To have her there was special. She is another big reason for me coming back.”