Trinity Bannon eyes return to race riding after four years

Mackay record-breaker Trinity Bannon’s riding career seemed over after she was kicked by a horse four years ago but, after a successful stint as a trainer, she is ready to ride again.

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Mackay record-breaker Trinity Bannon is set to embark on yet another phase of her trendsetting career when she returns to race riding this month.

Bannon has not ridden since December 5, 2015, a day when she landed a treble at Home Hill. Her riding career was seemingly over after she was kicked by a horse, which shattered her collarbone.

She has previously put “a positive spin” on the incident, saying “it would have been a lot worse if it hit me in the head instead of the collarbone”.

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Trinity Bannon has had great success as a trainer, but now she is keen to resume her riding career. Picture: Brendan Radke

As a rider, she won both the apprentice and senior jockeys’ titles in Mackay.

Forced into premature retirement, Bannon took out a trainer’s licence and a couple of years into that venture, she won the Mackay premiership. And she won again last season.

In between, Bannon started a family. Her son Kobe is now 3½ and daughter Maddison is just short of her first birthday.

Now, Bannon is ready to return to race-riding, four years on from her last ride.

“I’m hoping to maybe ride the next Mackay meeting on Thursday week,” she said.

“I’m going to have a dual licence. I will still train and now ride as well.

“My dual licence is ready to go, but because I have so many horses in work, my old man (Michael Bannon) has taken out his licence again.

Trinity Bannon will return to the saddle as a part-time jockey. Picture: Mike Mills

“His licence is in the final stages of being processed and as soon as that is approved, I will transfer half my team into his name and the other half I will keep, because as a dual licence-holder you are only allowed to have five horses active in your stable and I’ve got 10 at the moment.”

Bannon intends to keep riding as only a part-time pursuit, riding Mackay, possibly Townsville, and a few country meetings.

“I’m not going to go back full-time,” she said. “It just hurts too much. I’ve got a lot of scar tissue and nerve damage (in the shoulder).

Trinity Bannon with son Kobe and daughter Maddison.

But the injury is much better than what it was, which Bannon attributes to a therapeutic treatment she initially used on her horses.

“We use shockwave therapy and the doctors had raved on about how good it was and it has definitely helped,” she said

“I use it all the time on my shoulders, as well as the horses, and that’s probably what’s given me some incentive to come back, because it’s helped so much.

“I’m not nervous. I’m more excited about returning than anything.”

Star apprentice weighs up appeal

Queensland’s top apprentice Baylee Nothdurft is considering his options of appeal after having two rulings go against him in the past 48 hours.

On Tuesday, Nothdurft was suspended for one month after stewards found him careless of interference in the incident that led to Tegan Harrison’s fall in October.

Four jockeys came to grief in the fall, where Harrison suffered serious injuries to her sternum, ribs and vertebrae. She remains on the sidelines.

Baylee Nothdurft could miss the ride Vega One in The Gateway on December 14. Picture: AAP

Nothdurft, who had his master Tony Gollan with him at the inquiry, argued the shift was only minimal, but stewards deemed it enough to warrant the suspension.

Simultaneously, Nothdurt’s internal review of a 12-day suspension incurred for his ride on A Man To Match on November 2 has been returned and the stewards’ decision upheld. That followed a suspension at Doomben on Saturday, which Nothdurft chose to take straight away.

He had hoped to be back for the ride on Vega One in The Gateway on December 14, but the internal review finding means he has to appeal to QCAT and seek a stay if he is to keep riding.

He will decide on Thursday what action to take, but Michael Rodd has been booked for Vega One should Nothdurft be on the sidelines.