NZ premiership-winning jockey McNab ready to resume raceday competition

After having to endure another stint on the sideline in his roller-coaster career, dual premiership-winning jockey Michael McNab is looking forward to his raceday return at Ellerslie this weekend.

McNab, who won back-to-back premierships in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, has been off the scene since early last September after suffering a complicated leg fracture when kicked by a young horse he was about to mount at an Ellerslie trial meeting.

The initial prognosis was for a six-to-eight-week recovery, but with a plate and screws having to be inserted in what turned out to be a more serious fracture, his recovery has taken more than five months.

“When it happened, I went for X-rays in Auckland Hospital that night, and they said it was a fracture of the bone just below my knee,” McNab said.

“Then, when I got home, more X-rays and scans revealed how bad it really was, and I knew then it was going to be a long recovery.

“I was in a lot of pain and not quite able to understand what the surgeon was telling me, but as well as a plate and screws they inserted some sort of animal bone to help rebuild the missing bone at the top of my tibia.”

Adding further frustration to his predicament, McNab had established an early lead on the premiership in the opening weeks of the season, having been sidelined with a serious back injury 18 months earlier.