Two of Southland's leading ladies return to the track tomorrow for the province's first thoroughbred meeting of the season after vastly different winter breaks.
Both Southern filly of the year Showemup and her trainer, Sally McKay, will return at Gore all the stronger.
While Showemup enjoyed the best Southland grass and a well-earned break after her string of top-three finishes in black-type races, her trainer was having a break of her own from racing - though under the most horrific circumstances.
In May, McKay was hospitalised after sustaining a fractured skull and large gash to the right side of her head that displaced her right ear, among other injuries, after she was dragged by a horse she was riding in work.
The resulting surgery, concussion and recuperation period put her resolve to the test, but also demonstrated how passionate she was about her horses and the racing industry.
''I am just rapt to be back.
''It really makes you look at things twice - do you really want to do it? - but I really still wanted to be in racing.
''But if I couldn't ride, I wasn't going to stay in the game.''
In August, McKay returned to the saddle, though not before she had followed doctors orders for her recovery.
''. . . If I didn't follow their [specialists'] instructions I would have been a fool, because it was pretty serious.
''I feel near enough to 100%. I have only had a problem sleeping and that seems to be on the improve.
''It was hard being on the sideline all of that time and not being able to get back on the horses, but at the end of the day it was a pretty small price to pay for what it could have been.''
What made McKay even more determined to get herself back to full health was her preparing her classy listed winner, Showemup, for her spring campaign.
''Having horses like that in the stable helps your recovery, I can tell you. It got me wanting to get back into it.
Unlike her trainer, Showemup has had a dream winter and early spring, in total contrast to the same stage of her campaign last year when she was plagued by niggling injuries.
''Last year we started off on the wrong foot and we had trouble right until December. But this year she is working well. She is looking a bit stronger and she trialled last week and she won that really easily, so I think we are on the right track.''
Showemup showed has shown herself to be talented and versatile, winning races from 1100m to 2000m on dead, slow and heavy tracks.
McKay is restricting the mare to 1400m in her spring campaign in which her target race will be the Canterbury Breeders' Stakes at Riccarton during New Zealand Cup week in November.
After that, Showemup's versatility gave her a big range of options on where to target the horse, McKay said.
Showemup will resume in the hottest of early season sprinting fields in race 6 at Gore tomorrow. But even though she is up against a classy lie-up, McKay would not be surprised if her mare went a cracking race.
