THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - JASON COCK-A-HOOP AS HE SCORES A LANDMARK VICTORY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 18, 2012

Mental toughness is a prerequisite for success in any high intensity sporting arena.

That toughness is relative to the particular challenges that are brought to bear on different individuals and the level of success they attain can be judged on various levels, but the point is you don’t have to be a high profile success story to be a superstar in the mental toughness and achievement rankings.

When Sunshine Coast based jockey Jason Hoopert crashed to the ground during the running of the second race at Kilcoy back in July 2006 his world came crashing down with him. The list of his physical injuries was severe … one of his arms was broken in two places (it is now held together by a plate), three broken ribs, a punctured lung but, most significant of all, was brain trauma … bleeding on the brain!

The prognosis when he arrived at the hospital was not good. In a critical condition, Hoopert was placed in an induced coma. Thankfully, as has now been well-documented, that was the worst it got but, as his body began to heal, Hoopert seemingly had to come to terms with several new realities, one of the most telling of which was the medical assessment that he would never ride again.

Fast forward to Eagle Farm last Saturday and Mimics, the winner of the fourth race, is brought back to the winner’s enclosure. The jockey dismounts and with glowing pleasure announces, “and they told me I would never ride again.”

It was a big day for Jason Hoopert.

“That’s thirty-one winners since my come-back. I’m pretty stoked the way things are going.

“Things were pretty serious after the fall and it was a slow recovery. I can’t remember how long I was actually in hospital, but I do know I tried to check myself out a few times.”

Hoopert’s motivation in attempted to secure his own release from hospital might have been misguided at the time, but it already showed a steely determination and resolve which was to serve him well in the years of rehabilitation that followed.

“I lost all of my balance. I couldn’t walk in a straight line. They were telling me I would never ride again. I didn’t believe them.

“Three years later the balance came back. I started riding track-work for Trevor Miller up here at Coloundra … and it just kept going from there. Thirty-one winners so far, like I said … and guess what, that was my first win at Eagle Farm, in fact my first metropolitan win, so it’s a wonderful day for me.”

Hoopert was happy to describe the race that clinched his landmark result.

“My horse kicked in the straight and just kept finding. I was pretty excited when we hit the line.

“Side By Side (Mimics’ closest rival) probably did head me at one stage, but we never gave up. My horse just loves being a race-horse. She just keeps finding every time I ridden her, so I knew there would be a little more there … and there was!”

Hoopert was summing up the performance of his horse but, with just a few minor word changes, he could so easily have been talking about himself. ‘Never gives up’ … ‘just loves being’ (a race-rider) … ‘keeps finding’ … and the final statement is perhaps to most apt of all, ‘I knew there would be a little more there … and there was!”

And Hoopert hasn’t finished yet. You can tell by the spring in his step that, while one goal might have been accomplished, others are waiting in the pipeline.

This column adds its applause to the achievement of Jason Hoopert and others who have gone before him to overcome similar odds.

As I stated at the outset, you don’t have to be a headline act to be a champion!

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