Rising star Colliver ready to pick up where he left off

The 24-year-old is due to partner Roxyfet at Sedgefield for his boss Micky Hammond after being given the all clear by the British Horseracing Authority’s medical team. He just needs his licence to be ratified prior to racing.

Sheffield-born Colliver was in the form of his life when unseated from Erica Starprincess at Cartmel in late May.

Yet, while the fall was relatively innocuous-looking, Colliver was kicked by a pursuing horse and suffered serious nerve damage to his right arm which has only just healed.

It was a cruel blow to a jockey who had just ridden a career-best 21 winners in the 2014-15 season – Colliver was establishing himself as one of the North’s foremost conditional riders thanks to his burgeoning association with horses like the Hammond-trained Just Cameron who won four races before finishing a very creditable second behind Ruby Walsh on the brilliant Un De Sceaux in the Grade One Ryanair Novice Chase at the prestigious Punchestown Festival.

“It has taken a lot more time to heal than a broken bone,” said Colliver, who is retained by Middleham-based Hammond. “I was flying. I had had a double at Cartmel on the Monday, a winner at Hexham on the Tuesday and then the fall on the Wednesday.

“Watching horses win that you would have ridden, it does get to you. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. It’s nice, though, to see them still win for the owners and the yard. It gives other lads a chance. Alderbrook Lad gave Finian O’Toole his first winner. I’ve been running most days and I’ve been to Jack Berry House; I can’t wait to get going again.”

Colliver, a graduate of Northern Racing College, has consoled himself with the fact that the summer months are relatively quiet from a National Hunt perspective.

However, he hopes to pick up the winning thread – he thinks it not unreasonable, fitness permitting, to come close to matching last season’s number of winners.

As for Just Cameron, Colliver reports that the horse is back in training and is likely to reappear at Christmas time. He says “there is no rush” because most of the big two-mile races are in the second half of the season.

Trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies has led the tributes to stable stalwart Ollie Magern who has died at the age of 17 from a heart attack. This resolute steeplechaser won the 2005 and 2007 renewals of Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase.

“Ollie Magern was an amazing little horse and had a great record in the Charlie Hall Chase. He was very small, but was all guts. He was at the top level all his life,” he said.