Curran returns from injury
Jockey can’t wait to get back on Grand National winner Wotabuzz
Awapuni jumps jockey Hayley Curran is back from injury looking forward to next winter and being reunited with star hurdler Wotabuzz.
The pair enjoyed a stellar winter season on the racetrack in 2012 but, unfortunately, Curran ended it with injury.
The 21-year-old dislocated a shoulder and broke a finger on the right hand when her mount Silence Please fell at the last fence in the restricted open hurdle (4400m) at the Rotorua-Bay of Plenty Hunt Club meeting in mid-September.
Curran had an operation on her finger the next day, but had an operation to fix her shoulder only six weeks ago.
Silence Please, trained by part-owner Warren Lund, fractured both his front sesamoids in the fall and had to be put down, which not only upset connections but Curran as well.
He had run an enormous race before tragedy struck, trailing leaders Mr Mor and No Quota for a long way before jumping to the lead with a rails run passing the 1000m mark.
However, he came under pressure inside the last 600m and was headed off again in front after turning for home in the run to the second last jump. He was holding third place gallantly when he went down at the last.
Silence Please (by Traditionally) won six races, including two hurdle races and one steeplechase.
Meanwhile, Curran started riding work at Awapuni again for boss Mark Oulaghan last week and said it took a couple of mornings to blow the cobwebs out.
“I was pretty sore for the first few days, but now it’s just a matter of getting race fit and getting the weight down again. Not that that will be a problem,” she said.
“I’ll be bang on by the time the jumping season comes around.”
Curran just hopes her raceday hero Wotabuzz, who is in pretraining, stays in one piece.
Last winter, Wotabuzz and Curran combined six times for four wins and a fourth.
They won a lower-grade hurdle at Trentham in June by 17 lengths, followed up with a highweight victory at Waverley by four lengths then finished fourth in Waitaha Toa’s Wellington Hurdle at Trentham in July.
Riccarton beckoned in August, and Wotabuzz captured the Sydenham Hurdle by eight lengths and the Grand National Hurdle four days later by 20 lengths, each time running his rivals ragged with relentless tearaway tactics.
In their final appearance together, Wotabuzz led but weak- ened to finish ninth in the Great Northern Hurdle at Ellerslie.
“He felt so good last year that I’m entitled to think he’ll be even better this time round,” Curran said.
“He’s such an awesome horse and I consider myself very lucky to have ridden him at all.”
One of the least experienced jockeys to win a Grand National, Curran was having only her 30th raceday ride that afternoon.
The Wotabuzz Grand National victory capped off a notable day for Oulaghan and Curran, who combined earlier to win a 0-1 steeple with promising jumper Upper Cut.
Curran hailed from a Hawke’s Bay background in hunting and showjumping prior to joining John Bary’s Hastings stable, where she received her early racing experience.
However, she was snapped up in late 2010 by Awapuni trainer Mark Oulaghan, who soon put her on his jumpers. For Curran, there’s been no looking back, and her first winner was Oulaghan-trained Electriclite at Awapuni in August, 2011.
She has ridden eight winners in total, four of them on Wotabuzz, whose success over hurdles has been an amazing ride also for his eight Manawatu owners of Kevin Tod, John Naylor, Doug Smith, Murray Sisley, Peter Clark, Gordon Edwards, Paul Bevins and former All Black Gary Knight.
The His Royal Highness gelding’s return to winter racing later in the year is awaited with interest.
Hayley Curran returns to scale on Wotabuzz after their success in last year’s Grand National Hurdle. Photo: FAIRFAX