Just 13 months after suffering a stroke, jockey Jeff Lloyd was back doing what he does best when he scored of the most satisifying winners of his career, on Paederos at Canterbury on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old is fitter and more motivated after thinking his career was over. He showed he has lost none of skill at Canterbury - he has ridden more than 4500 winners and had 93 group 1 victories. But after hopping off Paederos, he talked of the reality of his situation after collapsing at the Sunshine Coast last March.
"I thought I was gone but I wasn’t ready to let it go," he said. "I was still loving the game, I thought there has to be more, I had to keep trying, and my body was telling me yes or no."
Despite the stroke, Lloyd was determined to ride again once it became clear he had no permanent damage.
"I had a torn vessel to the brain, which caused the blood clot, and I collapsed, it was a full-blown stroke but luckily no paralysis," Lloyd said.
"Just very slight [paralysis] for the first few months, a little on the left side but nothing bad enough to keep me out ... it has got better with treatment.
"It motivated me, I’ve been doing a lot of swimming, a lot of gym work, which I have never done in the past. It has been a long road where I have pushed myself to get to where I am, I am just happy to have a winner."
Lloyd, a six-time South African champion jockey, didn't want to come back unless he could do himself justice and asked Paederos' trainer David Payne, a close friend, to give him the final all-clear.
"I felt like everything was still there, it was just a matter of whether I got the chances and thankfully David has put me on a nice horse early," Lloyd said.
"When I started riding work and trials, I said to myself I'll know I feel OK, I did feel well enough to give it a bash. I just got David to have a look at me and make sure I looked all right."
Lloyd said that for the first time in many years he was riding pain-free and would look to re-establish himself in Sydney. Paederos was only his third ride of his comeback but it was the one he had been waiting for.
"I don’t know where the next good one would come from , if that one didn't win," Lloyd said. "It is easy when they quicken like that."
To complete the afternoon, Tyler Marshall, son of Melbourne Cup winning jockey John, chalked up his first city winner on Agent for Team Hawkes.
"It is a great thrill and I was very honoured to get the opportunity from Mr Hawkes to ride Agent," 21-year-old Marshall said. "I had ridden him at Hawkesbury and I was confident that he would run a good race, but to get that win is fantastic."
Meanwhile, Snitzerland was sent to Brisbane last night to run in Saturday's Victory Stakes at Eagle Farm. The Lightning Stakes winner will be scratched from the All Aged Stakes after trainer Gerald Ryan did not want to risk the possibility of wet weather in Sydney.
"if it rains she will be just sitting at home in her box," Ryan said. "We made the decision as late as possible but in the end, the Brisbane race is a better lead-up to the BTC Cup and she is almost guaranteed of getting a dry track."
The other dual acceptor in Randwick's All Aged Stakes, Politeness, is likely to come to Sydney in preference to the Robert Sangster Stakes in Adelaide.
