BOBBY EL-ISSA IS BACK IN QLD - LIKE HE NEVER LEFT
By Graham Potter | Monday, December 21, 2020
To say that jockey Bobby El-Issa is a colourful character would be an understatement.
Early on, El-Issa’s career hit a fair bit of turbulence which was an unwelcome, disruptive force at times. On the shinier side of the coin, he also enjoyed his fair share of success along the way … but his biggest win, of course, came off the track back in 2015/16 when El-Issa took on and beat Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a rare form of cancer.
At the time, speaking on a Fox News feature, fellow jockey Glyn Schofield said, “As jocks we think we have a difficult life sometimes and that we have hardships, but none more so than he (Bobby) went through. To come through what he has gone through with a smile on his face 24/7 makes the rest of us sit up and take note. It makes you look at things a little bit differently.”
Just coming back to riding in April 2016 after being out of action since the June the previous year was a bit of a miracle given that, in the worst of times in his life-threatening battle cancer, El-Issa’s weight dropped to just 35kg. Typical of El-Issa’s determination, he won on his first day back in the saddle at Orange.
Doing it all with such a positive demeanour was inspiring and El-Issa lost no fans during his absence so, when his name appeared in the Doomben race-book out of left field on Saturday, there were those all too ready to back his chances knowing just how good a rider he is.
As it turned out, El-Issa won on his very first ride back in the Sunshine State when piloting the Lindsay Hatch trained Let’s Party Marty to a decisive 3.50 length victory at a starting price of $17.00 leaving his followers all cashed up for the day.
Let’s Party Marty had three previous trainers before finding his way into the Hatch stable who he resumed for after exactly an eight month break away from race action.
The six-year-old son of Duporth won first-up at Toowoomba and the performance there gave Hatch the confidence to bring the horse back to town on Saturday where he ultimately had little difficulty landing a second successive win (and the fifth victory of his career).
El-Issa followed up by finishing a gallant second on the $8.50 Miss Iano (behind Racecourse Road) and rounded off his day with an unplaced finish on an $81 outsider River Racer.
Not a bad day’s work by any standards … and El-Issa enjoyed it.
“I got a call from a good friend who said come and ride Miss Iano,” said El-Issa. “I’d won on her a few years ago.” (El-Issa actually won twice on Miss Iano back in April and May 2018 when the horse was still with trainer Mark Webb).
“Then a few opportunities came up with Lindsay Hatch and there are possibly other opportunities … so I came up here. Now with this Covid, I think I’m up here for a good few weeks.
‘Let’s Party Marty is a nice horse. He has had a handful of trainers, so he has been passed around a fair bit, but Lindsay Hatch said to me, this horse has got a lot of ability.
“He won at Toowoomba three weeks ago. I think Toowoomba has got a knack of making horses not look as good as good as they are,
“Let’s Party Marty came to town and won with a big weight and won convincingly … so I think he is where the trainer wants him.
“Yeah, I did have my fan-club welcoming me back when I brought Let’s Party Marty back to scale,” said El-Issa with a twinkle in his eye. “They always seem to be here for me. Throwing goggles to them is always good.
“I was lucky to get a winner and a second so I feel very blessed.
“I love riding here in Queensland … not just because it is the Sunshine State but because of the good people up here.
“I always get a good vibe coming up here and, for some reason, I think I ride well up here.
“I just need the right horses underneath me.”
And there it was again. El-Issa’s smile, his confidence and his willingness to interact with spectators all underlined his on-going philosophy of enjoying life to the full.
El-Issa is back in Queensland … like he had never left … to the delight of his fan-club.
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