Kevin Shea
Veteran KZN-based jockey Kevin Shea rode his first two winners at Greyville on Sunday since returning from an injury enforced break. He steered the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup log-topper Rich Girl to an impressive win in the third race, and then followed up in the very next race on Thirtytwo Squadron.
Both were trained by Charles Laird.
Rich Girl was only Shea’s sixth ride since returning to riding action a week earlier on 12 October, and he will be pleased to have broken the ice in such emphatic fashion.
The Charles Laird-trained Gr3 Strelitzia Stakes winner Rich Girl is a progressive 3yo and has headed the log for the R3,85 million Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup to be run at Turffontein on Saturday 1 November, since it was published.
The Markus and Ingrid Jooste owned Rich Girl was bred in Australia by Chatswood Stud Holdings Pty Ltd, Victoria and then offered for sale at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale where trainer Charles Laird bought her for R550 000, a sum he said was ‘cheaper than expected.’
Now a winner of 4 races from her 7 starts, Rich Girl is by Rock Of Gibraltar out of the Giant’s Causeway mare, Miss Moguls.
First entries the Ready To Run Cup are due on 20 October.
Full of smiles – Kevin Shea
Shea suffered a debilitating back injury and he recently said on www.goldcircle.co.za that he had gone to great lengths to speed up the process and had visited various medical practitioners or centres, including a masseuse, the spinal injury unit at a local hospital, a physiotherapist, doctors and even a man in the centre of Durban who practised traditional Chinese medicine for decades.
The latter doctor used a technique to remove the damaged blood from the bruised area, which speeded up the process of healing the bruises. Suction cups were first placed above the bruised area and then removed.
An incision was then made and the cups were put on again, thereby sucking the dark, damaged blood out of the system.
Fresher blood then moved in to replace it. With each session the removed blood becomes redder, indicating it is fresher. Shea was not sure whether this treatment sped up his recovery, but he said he had been “desperate” to be back riding, so had been willing to give it a try.
During the healing process he had picked up various preventative measures for the future from the different practitioners he has visited.
He said, “I have been riding for 37 years, so can expect some wear and tear, but little things I have now been made aware of like not bending down and a million things the spinal unit taught me should help prevent injury.”
Shea was grateful when tests in early September showed that no long term damage had been done to the nerves by a “bulged C3 vertebra”, but he went through indescribable pain for about a week as the disc had been touching one of the nerves.
His sports medicine consultant is former Sharks team doctor Craig Springate, who, like Shea, believes there are better ways of fixing a problem than going under the knife.
