Trailblazing jockey Lucy Alexander quits saddle after struggles with broken back

Lucy Alexander has brought her groundbreaking career in the saddle to a close, as a result of the broken back she suffered in a Newcastle fall at the end of 2020 not healing as she hoped. The news comes almost nine years to the day after she was the first woman to be champion conditional.

At a time when professional women were much less visible in the jumps weighing room, Alexander raised expectations about what could be achieved. She broke Lorna Vincent's 32-year-old record for wins in a season and was Britain's most successful female jump jockey for several years, until passed by Bryony Frost in the month after Alexander's final ride.

That was aboard Chanting Hill, who was going easily in the lead when falling five fences out in a handicap chase. Alexander was kicked by one of the other runners and sustained a fracture to her L3 vertebra which continues to trouble her.

"It's obviously not the way I'd have wanted it to end," she said, explaining her decision. "Anyone would want to end when the time is right. I was enjoying it.

"I had a scan in March. It's definitely improved and will hopefully continue to improve. But it's still incomplete healing and it's 17 months now."

At the start of the year, the 31-year-old took a job as racing manager at Andrew Balding's powerful Kingsclere stable, a sign that she was preparing to move on.

Andrew Balding: Lucy Alexander joined the trainer's Kingsclere yard at the start of the yearCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I think I knew pretty early on that a comeback was unlikely," she said. "When I was in A&E, they told me it was career-ending, which wasn't their call and wasn't necessarily true. But I suppose I was always thinking, it's a bonus if I can come back."

Metal rods, inserted into her back to stabilise the injury, were removed in October, when there were hopes that increased load-bearing might stimulate bone recovery. She spent much of last year commuting between her Fife home and Jack Berry House in North Yorkshire, a rehab facility built and maintained by the Injured Jockeys Fund.

"The support from the IJF the whole way through has been incredible. I was at Jack Berry for basically a year, on and off. I can't praise them too highly, it's a brilliant place."

Alexander says she still experiences some pain from the injury.

"I'm stiff the whole time. But I feel very lucky, considering it could have been a lot worse. I don't feel like I can jump on a horse and take a fall, basically."

Since the headline-grabbing first two seasons of her time as a professional, Alexander estimates she was sidelined by injury "every three to six months for about five years". She sustained collar bone breaks on nine occasions and joked about attempting a comeback to make it a round ten.

"I went from collar bones to concussions. I was probably saving my collar bones and landing on my head instead," she said. "And then there were the annoying ones that were pure fluke, just getting a hoof in the wrong place. I did my jaw, my eye socket, my cheekbone and chin, all in separate things. They were kicks, it's not like you're breaking because you're fragile. You're breaking because the horse has trodden on you.

"But then I did have a couple of years at the end, where I was just riding for my dad, I wasn't really injured and I was enjoying it. It was going well. We're starting to get a better type of horse at home. I don't know when I would have stopped if this hadn't happened.

"I've had a lot of good days and some nice winners for my family and the owners at Kinneston. Every time I got injured, they supported me when I came back. If it wasn't for all of them, I'd have had to have stopped years ago."

Nick Alexander: 'Whatever she does, she'll be pretty good at it'Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Alexander said her duties at Kingsclere include "keeping owners in the picture, helping with race-planning, doing the heart-rate data from the gallops. Just try and be helpful. A lot of it is logistics".

"I feel very fortunate to be able to come to a place like this because I didn't think I'd get a job with quite so much responsibility. They're great people to work for. It's a fantastic set-up and there are a lot of nice horses."

In the long-term, Alexander is expected to take over at her father Nick's yard.

"We didn't want her to just drift into taking over here because there's a big, wide world out there and other opportunities may emerge," he said.

"Or she may be back here at the end of the summer. I'll be delighted if she comes back and I'll be delighted if she succeeds elsewhere. One thing I'm confident of is that, whatever she does, she'll be pretty good at it."

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