Patience, hard work and perseverance finally paid off for jockey Kelvin Wharton who scored his first city win on Dane Raider at Doomben on Wednesday since breaking his back in a fall in January.Wharton, 35, was hospitalised after suffering a heavy fall on the cushion track at Caloundra but the doctors' report was not good with the popular rider suffering three fractures of his back."I was only in hospital for a few days but I broke my back in three places," Wharton said."It's taken time for it t

Patience, hard work and perseverance finally paid off for jockey Kelvin Wharton who scored his first city win on Dane Raider at Doomben on Wednesday since breaking his back in a fall in January.

Wharton, 35, was hospitalised after suffering a heavy fall on the cushion track at Caloundra but the doctors' report was not good with the popular rider suffering three fractures of his back.

"I was only in hospital for a few days but I broke my back in three places," Wharton said.

"It's taken time for it to mend but I made my comeback about five weeks ago and I've ridden four winners at the provincials.

"But it's good to be back winning in town and I'm not having any problems with my weight.

"While I was out my weight crept up to around 59 kilograms but I'm down to riding 53 kilos now. If you can't ride 53 kilos it's hard to get a ride in town."

Wharton was always confident of returning to the saddle despite the gloomy doctors' report and spent a lot of time fishing to break the boredom of being away from his profession.

"I always knew I'd be back riding one day and I've done a lot of work in the gym to get my strength up," Wharton said.

"It's been a long haul but I did a lot of fishing to break the boredom."

Wharton produced a superb ride on Dane Raider who angled his way along the rails to down Ms Mickdandee by a half-neck in the Livestock Transport Maiden Plate (1650m).

The win was also a welcome change of luck for trainer Gail Harrison as the five-year-old had nine placings from his previous 23 starts.

"It's all been in his head. I've been waiting for this day for the light to finally come on with him," she said.

Harrison has been training for 17 years but her only previous city winner in Queensland was Thebarefootbushman who won two races at Eagle Farm in 2006.

"I had a few winners at Canterbury when I trained in the south but that was a very long time ago," Harrison said.

"After Sydney I went to train at Bundaberg for six years and I've been at Caloundra for the past two years.

"But in between I spent about five years training at Gympie."