Injury-hit jockey Henry Brooke delighted with winning return

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the North’s leading riders, enjoying big-race success aboard Highland Lodge in the Becher Chase at Aintree, Wakanda in Doncaster’s Sky Bet Chase and Cornerstone Lad in the Grade One Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.

However, Brooke broke three vertebrae in his neck and two in his back when suffering a schooling fall at Oliver Greenall’s yard in Cheshire last November.

“It’s felt like an age, to be honest,” said the Middleham-based rider in the aftermath of his comeback win at Catterick.

“I did three vertebrae in my neck and two in my back. They were all compression fractures, which isn’t too bad, although one in my neck was a bit touch and go. Luckily, it all worked out well.

“I had a solid brace on for seven weeks and then a soft collar on for another three weeks after that. I’ve been in great hands with Dr Jerry Hill of the BHA and all of my recovery is down to the people at Jack Berry House in Malton. I can’t praise everyone that helped me enough.”

This is the second time that Brooke has returned to the saddle from career-threatening injuries – he was left in a coma, and suffered internal falls, following a heavy fall at Hexham in October 2016.

Having finished sixth on his first rid back, Brooke got back in the winning groove aboard the Mark Walford-trained Miss Amelia in the Racing TV Handicap Chase.

After taking over the lead between the final two fences, Miss Amelia found plenty for pressure on the run-in. “To come out of it with a winner, I’m absolutely on cloud nine,” said Brooke whose younger brother Danny has recently taken over the training licence at the family’s stables from their mother Julia.

“I took a blow on my first ride, but when you’re in with a chance of winning you find the strength – and to be fair to the mare, she’s very gutsy and helped me all the way to the line.

“No jockey likes being off – it’s an absolute nightmare watching horses win that you would have rode, but I’m looking to the future and hopefully I can get myself a couple of nice winners before the end of the season.”

Brooke, who is a contender to ride the Brian Ellison-trained Definitly Red in the Randox Grand National, was also keen to pay tribute to British event rider Matthew Wright, who died earlier this week. “Matthew was a really good event rider and I was good friends with him. My condolences go out to his family at this tough time,” he added.

Meanwhile leading Irish jockey Davy Russell, who began his career with the late Ferdy Murphy in West Witton, will miss next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Russell – who won the Gold Cup aboard Lord Windermere in 2014 – has been on the sidelines since dislocating and fracturing vertebrae in a first-fence fall in the Munster National at Limerick last October.

Russell, who won the 2018 and 2019 Grand Nationals on Tiger Roll, was due to ride the precocious Envoi Allen in the Marsh Novices’ Chase. He said: “I met with my surgeon, and although he is delighted with the progress I have made, he feels that I’m not quite where I should be in order to ride at Cheltenham.”

British racing plans to introduce a ground-breaking pilot scheme of raceday saliva tests for jockeys to detect cocaine and other banned substances.

The joint-venture, developed by the British Horseracing Authority and the Professional Jockeys Association, will begin this spring.

Announced as jockey Philip Prince received a six-month suspension following a positive cocaine test, the intention is that oral swabs will be able to quickly indicate presence of any banned substance in a rider’s system.

If successful, racing may become the first major sport in Britain to use saliva testing – which would enable them to stand jockeys down for that day’s racing.

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