Deanne Panya happy back in the saddle

Tuesday 11 April 2017, 2:25pm

Apprentice Deanne Panya has had no hesitation about getting back on the horse, despite her return to racing coinciding with a sequence of tragic events for fellow jockeys.

The 24-year-old returned from a 10-week injury-enforced lay-off in style at Goulburn on Monday, guiding the Marc Conners-trained Maddison Avenue to the line in her first competitive ride since she was injured in a fall.

On Wednesday at Warwick Farm she rides Atunnah Courage and Express Point for trainers Libby Haworth and Gary Portelli respectively.

Panya needed surgery on a broken collarbone and lacerated jaw after she lost her balance aboard the Portelli-trained Sebring Express in the Widden Stakes at Rosehill on January 28.

She passed the necessary concussion tests on Monday last week, started trackwork a day later and was set to resume racing at Warwick Farm on the Wednesday but her one mount was scratched.

Instead she made a nerveless comeback at Goulburn, just two days after country NSW jockey Darren Jones was killed and Melanie Bolwell and Leanne Henry were hospitalised after a three-horse fall at Warialda.

Track riders Ben Saunders and Wade Clasohm suffered serious spinal injuries in an incident at Toowoomba on Saturday morning while South Australian jockey Dominic Tourneur has broken ribs after a fall on Tuesday.

While Panya obviously sympathised with her colleagues, she had no qualms about restarting her career.

"It could happen to any one of us. It is quite scary, I guess. I don't stew on it too much," Panya said.

Panya said it felt normal to be back riding at Goulburn.

"It was pretty normal. It was as if I was just continuing where I left off," she said,

"I'm a pretty laid-back sort of a person. I was pretty neutral.

"It's a good confidence builder.

"I wasn't nervous. It probably helps I don't really remember much of it (the fall) anyway."

Panya focused on her passion for drawing during her recovery, but never sketched out plans for an alternative career.

"I thought I did pretty good to go four or five years without even falling" she said.

"It's just a chance thing, just one of those accidents."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »