WHENEVER Katelyn Mallyon feels down in the dumps about her enforced absence from the saddle, she takes herself back to the harrowing day of her heavy fall at Flemington in early May and thanks her lucky stars, reports The Age.It says: Being put in an induced coma and left unable to work for what is likely to be the best part of six months might not seem much to be thankful for.But the 18-year-old, who is poised to become the first female jockey to win the Victorian Metropolitan Apprentice title,

WHENEVER Katelyn Mallyon feels down in the dumps about her enforced absence from the saddle, she takes herself back to the harrowing day of her heavy fall at Flemington in early May and thanks her lucky stars, reports The Age.

It says: Being put in an induced coma and left unable to work for what is likely to be the best part of six months might not seem much to be thankful for.
But the 18-year-old, who is poised to become the first female jockey to win the Victorian Metropolitan Apprentice title, knows that her fate could have been much worse. She could, like another female rider badly injured in a fall this year, Western Districts mother-of-two Louise Cooper, have found herself in a wheelchair and unable to walk again, never mind ride a horse.

Such are the tiny differences that mean so much in life. In Mallyon's case, it means she can dream of a future in the saddle and the fulfilment of her ambition to be one of the state's most successful jockeys.

She is well on the way. The 23 wins she amassed before the Flemington fall put her well clear of the chasing pack of apprentices, and even now her closest pursuers - headed by Jake Duffy on 17, with her boyfriend Jake Noonan and Damian Lane close up - are still half a dozen and more behind. It would require an extraordinary achievement for any of those to ride enough winners in the three remaining meetings left this season to catch her.
''I was very, very lucky,'' Mallyon said this week. ''I had a compound fracture of my T6 and there were some bone chips that came loose but they didn't go into my spinal column."

Mallyon is optimistic that she will be back in the saddle later this year, probably when the spring carnival frenzy has died down.

www.theage.com.au