Page 21 - August 2019 Thoroughbred Highlight

Corrine was primed and ready to begin race riding upon her return to Hastings except a moment before a work changed those plans and set her back in more than one way.
Bucked off just before the start of a work Corrine injured her neck and her head when she slammed into the ground. Despite a ringing in her ears and losing the memories of her childhood in her mind, Corrine did not realize or maybe did not accept that she was truly hurt.
Setting a new start date for the following season Corrine and despite the awareness that she “just did not feel right” she continued galloping in the mornings.
Meanwhile the newly retired jockey Chad Hoverson took her book as her agent at the end of 2012.
“Hopefully with some luck,” Hoverson was quoted as saying in an article, “they all will have a good
year. Everyone knows about Frank (Fuentes), Davie (Wilson) and how hard they work. What is going to
be fun is how much the three of us can help Corrine become a top young rider and how much the public is going to enjoy watching her improve every day.”
But despite their best efforts a broken saddle during a work two weeks before opening day at Hastings
in 2013 resulted in broken ribs for Corrine and yet another set back in the start of her race riding career.
Back in the saddle, this time at Grand Prairie
in Lethbridge, Alberta, Corrine made her rst two career starts as a jockey on opening day July 5, 2013 nishing third and second (by a nose) that day. Corrine’s rst win came courtesy of the Ron Olson trained, Sir Sits a Lot, with a front running trip to prevail by a neck on July 13. It would be the rst of 11 wins that year with Corrine also competing at Lethbridge for their autumn meet.
Then at Hastings in Vancouver in 2014, Corrine “started again” and this time, after winning 18 of her 167 starts so far that season the talented apprentice was nally on her way in her career until an incident in the starting gate derailed her yet again.
With about a month left of the Hastings meet, while loading for a race, Corrine’s mount jolted back out
of the starting gate, reared and ipped onto the rail before landing on her as the pair fell backwards to
the ground. Corrine could not breathe and eventually blacked out. She remembers her voice in her mind saying, “I’m not going yet” and when she nally awoke the pain she immediately felt was a broken rib but that was only the start of her troubles.
Months afterwards Corrine attempted to get back to riding and accepted the invitation to ride in the World Arabian Horse Racing Conference in Warsaw, Poland at the end of May 2015. Despite an excellent performance overseas Corrine’s return to racing was
Bullet and Corrine Andros at Royal Canadian Riding Academy in Cedar Valley, Ontario
still posing a challenge.
“I just never felt right,” said Corrine trying to nd
words to explain the pain she was experiencing in her body, “At times I couldn’t gallop. I couldn’t walk. But I couldn’t give up.”
Corrine took a position as assistant to trainer Justin Nixon at Woodbine working a couple days a week. Trying to regain her strength and working through her pain she rode four races that year and struggled to make a comeback.
In what would seem like a positive turn of events, Corrine married in 2016. However weeks after the vows were spoken her newly wed husband began beating her both physically and mentally. Corrine mustered up the courage to escape the abusive marriage arriving at the gates of Wavertree Stables “broken” and thinking she was useless and could never ride again.
Ciaran Dunne arranged for Corrine to work at Del Mar grooming horses to get her strength and con dence back.
With her determination prevailing over her physical ailments Corrine returned to Vancouver in 2017 to gallop with her sights set on a comeback that year.
Continued Page 22
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 21 - August 2019