Smiley Sam, the comeback kid

Jockey Sam Spratt’s infectious smile will make a welcome return to the races at Te Rapa on Saturday, where she will resume raceday riding after a 20-month absence.

Spratt initially took time away from the sport to have her daughter, Riley, who was born in September last year. Intent on making a swift comeback, Spratt returned to the saddle soon after giving birth, but disaster struck just weeks later when a horse fell on top of her in trackwork, breaking her pelvis in multiple places as well as fracturing a couple of vertebrae.

“Having a newborn wasn’t tricky enough, so I thought I would throw in a shattered pelvis as well,” Spratt quipped. “I broke my pelvis in about eight places, the front of my pelvis was all shattered, and I fractured a couple of my vertebrae as well. When I went in (to the hospital) they said I did a good job.”

The 41-year-old hoop had to undergo two surgeries and spent a significant amount of time in a wheelchair following her initial operation last year but said she made swift progress following her second surgery in June.

“It was broken in half and the whole pelvis had twisted, so they straightened it up by putting some screws in my leg and they pulled my femur down, which straightened the pelvis and made the pelvis round, and then put two big rods from one side of my pelvis to the other across the back,” Spratt said.

“I was in a wheelchair for four months because I wasn’t allowed to put weight on it. I was only allowed to stand on one leg to get myself from the wheelchair to the toilet or bed.

“After that I gradually went to crutches before being able to walk. For about two or three months I was walking but I constantly had a limp and I wasn’t right, so that is when I went to my doctor, I had a CT scan done and the surgeon said my pelvis wasn’t even attached, so no wonder I was limping.

“That’s when I went back for surgery and then I was back on crutches and progressed from there. I started making good progression and it has been a pretty speedy recovery once my pelvis was attached.

“He (surgeon) didn’t want me riding for 12 weeks after the surgery, he just wanted to make sure I was fully healed. Once that came, he said I could ride, and the next day I went back to the track.”

Spratt said she felt blessed to have two highly skilled surgeons operate on her.

“I was lucky I had two very good surgeons, and they managed to get it (pelvis) back to pretty much normal,” she said. “I think that is what has made the recovery so good, because it has been put back together so well.”

While recovering from her injuries was enough to deal with, having a newborn to care for brought its own challenges, but Spratt said she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“She (Riley) is awesome and is so cruisy,” Spratt said. “By having her and having something to do was awesome, otherwise I would be sitting there depressed, whereas she has made me have to get up and do stuff.”

With Spratt sustaining her injuries within weeks of Riley’s birth, much of the pressure fell on her partner, Bryce. However, Spratt said they were grateful for the support of their family and friends, who rallied around them.

“He (Bryce) had gone from being, like a lot of males, not a baby person, to having a four-week-old baby that he was having to do nights by himself.

“During the day it was great, we had such an operation going. I was in hospital for a week to 10 days and I carried on breast feeding, so I would pump in the hospital, and my parents would come in and pick the milk up and do the milk run back home to my partner, Bryce.

“Julia, my neighbour, was helping, and Bryce’s mum flew up from Middlemarch and stayed with us for about a month. We had quite a good operation going, that’s for sure. There were about seven adults and one baby. It is one way of bringing the community together.

“Cody, my son, also had times where he had to bathe the baby and help out. It has been quite funny, in a weird way.”

While Spratt admits that she did have thoughts about retirement, her thirst for riding is still there, and she was intent on returning to the saddle.

“As soon as it happened, I thought that maybe I should call it quits, but as I have gotten better and better, I wanted to do it more and more,” she said.

“Once I was healed, I was set in my mind that I wanted to do it (return). I have had so many injuries off horses, and I know that I am going to fall off again and I am probably going to injure myself again, but I am not scared, it is part and parcel of it. If I was scared of injuring myself, I wouldn’t want to be doing it because the chances of falling off a horse is quite high.”

Spratt has been riding at the trials and has been working hard on her fitness, and she is excited to experience the competition of raceday once again.

“I have had a couple of days trial riding and after the first couple it felt like I hadn’t stopped,” she said.

“I have done a lot of fitness work. I have been helping out at Daniel Nakhle’s academy, and they have got a brilliant gym out there. I have done as much groundwork as I can, but obviously raceday is a different thing. I didn’t blow too bad after the trials, so I am hoping I am not going to die too much.”

Spratt said it is fitting she will resume riding at Te Rapa, which has been the home of so many of her comebacks.

“It seemed appropriate being at Te Rapa because I had my first raceday ride there and I had my comeback day after my head injury there, and I had another comeback there after I broke my collarbone or ankle,” she said. “It seems to be my comeback place, so it is very fitting that it’s at Te Rapa.”

Spratt is currently set to ride three horses on Saturday, including the Stephen Marsh-trained Tardelli (I Am Invincible) in the Listed Legacy Lodge Sprint (1200m).

A decorated rider, Spratt has recorded 1,127 wins in New Zealand over 25 years, including 112 at Group or Listed level, and while she isn’t putting pressure on herself on her return, she is hoping to quickly add to that tally, with her first opportunity coming this weekend.

“I am just going to enjoy it and what will be will be, and hopefully I pick up a few speedy ones along the way,” she said.