Evans fights back from career-threatening injury

By Jordan Gerrans

Apprentice jockey Darren Evans was once told his shoulder was so badly damaged he would never ride in a race again but the veteran is back fighting fit as he edges closer to a return winner in the saddle.

At 43 years of age, Evans is jostling for the record as one of the oldest apprentice riders in Australia.

The lightweight hoop has made a remarkable comeback over the last month.

After kicking off his career in 2007, Evans has more than 100 winners to his name as he has ridden around the country. 

During the first stint of his apprenticeship, Evans had a fall while riding at Beaudesert in December of 2017 and suffered a serious shoulder injury.

The jockey’s surgeon informed him he was unlikely to ever compete in a race again.

The Warwick-based jockey admits there were some dark days mentally over the last seven years but he is now smiling to be back in the saddle.

“I just need to get my eye back in with my balance and my focus but other than that – I feel pretty good in the saddle,” Evans said.

“I was not far away from a winner on my second day back at Ipswich, I was just beaten in a photo-finish.”

The mature-age apprentice has had 11 race day rides back since his shock return at the start of July.

Evans has gone close to breaking through twice, finishing second at Ipswich at his second meeting back as a professional jockey as well as running into the money on Saturday evening at Clifford Park aboard Annakuri. 

It is a remarkable return for the experienced jockey after his right shoulder was so badly damaged in the fall.

“The surgeon told me I would never be able to ride again,” he recalls.

“It was a real bad dislocation and it ended up being on my pectoral muscle.

“I felt good one morning and thought I would come back riding just because I missed it too much.”

In the period of time when Evans was not riding and rehabilitating his shoulder, he took out a trainer’s license and found immediate success.

He took Madam Shazam to Doomben in the middle of 2019 as his first starter in a race and the mare caused a boil over with then apprentice rider Corey Bayliss doing the steering.

“I was excited about that,” he said.

“It was a Heavy 10 that day and she got back to last near the 800 metre mark and she just ran up the fence and took off at the 200 metre mark.

“She just blew them away in the end.”

Evans prepared two winners in his short stint in the training ranks.

The returning rider is indentured to Steven Hardy at Warwick and rides work for Michael Hemmings and Leo Roche, among other trainers, at the regional Queensland track.

He still claims two kilograms at a provincial TAB meeting.

It was a hard slog to get back but he is proud to be back riding after initially being told his days in the saddle were over.

“It was a lot of rehab, weights and moving it around just to get it stronger again,” he said.

“I had to keep doing what I was doing every day. It was a long process.

“There were times that I did not want to watch the races because it put me in a dark space – I really just wanted to get back out there and do it.

“It was tough for the first year or two.”

Evans heads to Ipswich Turf Club on Friday to partner Voulait for Hemmings.

Voulait – who Evans rode to a second-placed finish at Ipswich two starts back – is dual-nominated for the Benchmark 60 Handicap over 1100 metres and the Benchmark 60 Handicap over 800 metres on Friday.