Talented apprentice jockey Donovan Cooper has had his promising start to the season interrupted by injury.
The 23-year-old had kicked off 2023-24 in style with three well-ridden winners in August, but an untimely trackwork incident has temporarily halted his momentum.
“I had a horse flip on me during trackwork and it fractured my pelvis,” Cooper said. “Things had been going phenomenally through the first few weeks of the new season, so it’s a bit unfortunate.”
Cooper’s three wins in August all came aboard Andrew Forsman-trained runners, including a dominant victory at open handicap level aboard the well-performed White Noise (NZ) (El Roca) in the $40,000 Harcourts Whangarei (1400m) at Ruakaka on August 19.
He also guided Good Oil (NZ) (Dalghar) to success in the $40,000 Super Seth Mile (1600m) at Te Rapa on August 26, while The Finnster (NZ) (Vadamos) was a maiden winner at Hawera on August 6.
The initial prognosis is that Cooper will miss the majority of the spring, but he is doing everything he can to reduce that period of downtime.
“They’ve told me that I’ll probably be out for approximately nine to 12 weeks, but I’m hoping to cut that down a little bit with some hyperbaric therapy.
“It’s unfortunate timing, but I’m not going to dwell on it and call it bad luck. With the way things had been going before the injury, I’m definitely very keen to try to get back as soon as I possibly can.”
