Jockey Tegan Harrison is back in the saddle after in injury plagued career

Queensland jockey Tegan Harrison is back in the winners’ circle and quickly approaching 700 career wins with a new ‘off-track’ approach following a horror run of injuries.

Former leading apprentice Tegan Harrison has found herself back in the winners’ circle after battling a number of injuries during her stop-start career.

The 33-year-old has suffered three separate injury lay-offs in recent years and statistics show just how much race riding the popular hoop has missed.

Harrison had over 750 rides in five straight campaigns between the 2012-13 and 2016-17 racing seasons, with a high of 875 in 2015-16.

In the past six years, she has only gone past 600 rides in a season once but said she was proud of her efforts this season.

“I’ve struggled to gain momentum through my injuries but I’m ticking over nicely at the moment so as long as I’m not injured I’m pretty happy,” Harrison said.

“I had a bit of a joke towards the end of last season that maybe my goal should be just to ride out a full season without having any injuries to put things into perspective.”

Jockey Tegan Harrison. Picture: Patrick Woods

After her win on Earn Out at the Sunshine Coast on August 14, the Group 2-winning hoop was just two wins away from 700 career victories.

“It’s a nice goal that I’ll hopefully soon have done and dusted but I obviously don’t want to stop at 700, I’d like to keep going and ultimately 1000 would be good but we’re not going to knock that over in a season,” she said.

She said her work away from the track doing strength and fitness training had contributed to her recent success.

“Racing is getting so competitive up here so behind the scenes I’m getting myself to a really good spot mentally and physically to be able to do my job the best that I can,” she said.

Injured jockey Leah Kilner (in the wheelchair) left to right – jockey Angela Jones, Stephanie Thornton, Wendy Peel, Maddie Wishart and Tegan Harrison (front). Picture: Grant Peters Trackside Photography

Harrison said it filled her with joy to see injured jockey, Leah Kilner continue to recover.

“I can’t even begin to explain the feels I had on the day of Leah’s accident, I was riding down there with her and there was obviously grave concerns for her wellbeing,” she said.

“To see her come through the way she has is absolutely inspirational and it makes me nothing short of proud of that girl.

“She’s obviously a while off getting her life back to any way, shape or form that it was but she’s certainly heading the right way.”

Originally published as Jockey Tegan Harrison is back in the saddle after in injury plagued career