Leading jockey Matt Cameron is nervously waiting to hear how much of the lucrative summer racing period he will be forced to spend watching from the sidelines.
Cameron was injured after riding Visenya to a fifth-placed finish at New Plymouth last Friday. “I came back, dismounted and started taking the saddle off the horse, and then she just brushed her back legs against one of those little hedges they have on the sides of the ‘first’ to ‘sixth’ stalls,” Cameron said.
“She got a bit of a fright and lunged forward, then kicked with both barrels. She got me in the knee, and straight away I felt something happen, whether it was a pull or a tear to a ligament, I’m not sure yet. But I’ve had it x-rayed and at least there’s no fracture.
“I’ll go to the knee specialist on Thursday morning and get the results of an MRI scan. That’s when I’ll have a better idea of what the damage is and how long I might be out of action for.”
The injury has already proven costly, with Leith Innes taking the mount on two-year-old colt Unition and winning Saturday’s Listed FastTrack Insurance 5K Bonus 2YO Stakes (1100m) at Pukekohe.
“Obviously it’s a bad time of year to have something like this happen,” Cameron said. “I’ve been riding a few winners lately and getting on some good horses. “Fingers crossed for some good news this week. Hopefully, if it’s not too bad, I might only be out for a few weeks. I might even be able to make it back by Christmas, as long as I’m careful and don’t do anything too silly.”
Cameron has won 19 races this season including the Group 3 Gold Trail Stakes (1200m) on Aretha and this month’s Group 2 Coupland’s Bakeries Mile (1600m) on True Enough, who looms as a leading contender for the Group 1 Captain Cook Stakes (1600m) at Trentham on December 7.