Back on the track and right at home!

If South Australian driver Lisa Ryan had any doubts about coming back to the races after spinal fractures from a shocking fall in April, they were dispelled the moment she started scoring up for race one at Globe Derby harness racing on Saturday last week (Sept 3).

“It felt amazing getting back race driving at last – everyone was so welcoming and happy for me, it was really lovely,” Ryan said.

“I always get a buzz scoring up behind the mobile – but for that first race it felt extra special. It was bizarre. I felt so excited all day and then when I was driving out onto the track for the first race, it just felt right,” she said.

Ryan fractured eight vertebrae (including two in her neck that were also dislocated) fractured five ribs and suffered a minor brain bleed after she was catapulted 15 metres into the air during a race fall at Globe Derby Park on April 31.

But Ryan showed she hadn’t lost her touch with four months on the sidelines.

In her first drive back on Luv Me Or Hate Me, she finished a handy third, then followed up with a win later in the night on Abstractor (Julius Caesar) for her husband, trainer Toby Ryan.  At South Australia’s next meeting on the Monday (Sept 5) she scored another victory at her only drive on Irunformum (Metropolitan).

“Abstractor benefitted from a bit of a let up and the race just panned out perfectly for us,” Ryan said

“We dropped in behind the leader, then we were able to peel off at the top of the straight and come home down the outside.  I have to admit I did have a little tear over the line, too,” she laughed.

“I think Toby was pretty emotional about it as well – we did watch the replay quite a few times!”

Ryan who took up driving in her 40s, has 246 victories to her name (including a career highlight Group Two victory on Treasure (Art Major) in the Woodlands Stud State of Origin Series Final last year).

Although she was a keen three-day eventer, and her dad was a gallops trainer, Ryan didn’t have any background in harness racing until she met her husband-to-be, Toby, a veterinarian, when one of her horses suffered an injury.

But she took to the sport with a passion, eventually getting a driver’s licence and taking up race driving in 2009 when their regular driver David Harding was injured.

Ryan has one engagement at Globe Derby today, but a “weekend off” next Saturday when the spotlight turns to Globe Derby for the National Drivers’ Championship – an eight-race challenge between two nominated reinsmen and women from each State.

Although Lisa has been careful about her return to race driving, she has gradually built up her work rate at home.  The couple prepare a team of 15, as well as a number of youngsters and Lisa says easing back into the race driving will hopefully be short-lived.

“We’re back up to our usual numbers, so a lot of those will start getting back to the races,” she said.

“I have aches and pains, but I guess no one of my vintage that’s worked with horses all their life would have those!” she said.

“I tell someone: ‘I’ve got a bit of a sore back’.  And they say ‘Yeah, me too’! so I guess I’m going okay. It feels really good to be back.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink