Leith Innes
Trish Dunell
Queensland Oaks-winning jockey Leith Innes will finish a season that has yielded four Group One wins after he rides at Avondale next Wednesday.
The South Auckland jockey is booked for knee surgery two days later and expects his recovery time to rule him out of the remainder of the season.
"It's been an on-going injury. I fell off a few years ago and it has bugged me ever since," Innes said.
"The ACL ligament isn't that good. The MCL isn't much better and the surgeon wanted me to get both done at the same time but the recovery time for MCL surgery was going to be eight or nine months.
"I said to him 'if I get just the ACL done would that help the MCL strengthen up?' and he said it definitely could, so we're going with that."
Innes said he is booked for the surgery at 10.30am and he has been told he will be allowed to go home that afternoon.
"They seem to think I'll be off for four to six weeks but doctors always err on the longer side, so I think I'll be back at the start of August."
Innes goes into his enforced break on the back of one of the best wins of his career, having guided the Tony Pike-trained Provocative to success in the Gr.1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm last Saturday.
Earlier in the season he partnered Kawi to Group One wins in the Makfi Challenge Stakes, Zabeel Classic and Thorndon Mile.
"I've had a really good season," Innes said.
"Provocative is quite special. We've had a big opinion of her right from day one. She was my Derby ride here before she was ruled out the week of the race. She would have been awfully hard to beat had she started at Ellerslie.
"But Tony has always had confidence in her and he got her to the Oaks in terrific order. It was a shame they had to abandon the Oaks meeting the week before because she would have been a great chance of backing up and winning the Queensland Derby the next Saturday too.
"Sooner rather than later the penny is going to drop for her. When she gets more professional, she's going to be a topline stayer." - NZ Racing Desk
The South Auckland jockey is booked for knee surgery two days later and expects his recovery time to rule him out of the remainder of the season.
"It's been an on-going injury. I fell off a few years ago and it has bugged me ever since," Innes said.
"The ACL ligament isn't that good. The MCL isn't much better and the surgeon wanted me to get both done at the same time but the recovery time for MCL surgery was going to be eight or nine months.
"I said to him 'if I get just the ACL done would that help the MCL strengthen up?' and he said it definitely could, so we're going with that."
Innes said he is booked for the surgery at 10.30am and he has been told he will be allowed to go home that afternoon.
"They seem to think I'll be off for four to six weeks but doctors always err on the longer side, so I think I'll be back at the start of August."
Innes goes into his enforced break on the back of one of the best wins of his career, having guided the Tony Pike-trained Provocative to success in the Gr.1 Queensland Oaks (2400m) at Eagle Farm last Saturday.
Earlier in the season he partnered Kawi to Group One wins in the Makfi Challenge Stakes, Zabeel Classic and Thorndon Mile.
"I've had a really good season," Innes said.
"Provocative is quite special. We've had a big opinion of her right from day one. She was my Derby ride here before she was ruled out the week of the race. She would have been awfully hard to beat had she started at Ellerslie.
"But Tony has always had confidence in her and he got her to the Oaks in terrific order. It was a shame they had to abandon the Oaks meeting the week before because she would have been a great chance of backing up and winning the Queensland Derby the next Saturday too.
"Sooner rather than later the penny is going to drop for her. When she gets more professional, she's going to be a topline stayer." - NZ Racing Desk
