Nick Heywood falling from ‘Mammoth Mountain’ after a problem with the stirrups.

Jockey Nick Heywood had a successful day in the saddle at Wagga on Monday 21st, riding two winners before suffering a fall on the Riverside.

Heywood’s day couldn’t have began better when his ride on the Scott Collings trained gelding ‘Mogo Magic’ left punters in awe after a scorching win over it’s rivals.

‘Mogo Magic’ had already caught the eye of punters after his emphatic maiden win at Sapphire Coast when the gelding opened at $1.55 and looked every bit as good as the price it was put up as winning by seven lengths with Heywood also aboard the clearly talented gelding that day as well.

Though ‘Mogo Magic’ didn’t put up the same gap at Wagga it was still a ride that displayed plenty of promise and dominance as it sprung to the lead out of the gates, was moved onto the fence from Heywood and took every short cut imaginable as it strolled in to win by four lengths over second-placed ‘DeepMind’ ridden by Jeff Penza.

The race afterwards saw Nick go back-to-back once again riding the favourite though this one not as short. Heywood was aboard a four year-old mare trained by Wayne Carroll ‘Sledge’.

‘Sledge’ jumped at $2.50 and gave favourite backers a scare when she walked out of the gates and settled second to last for the majority of the race.

The locally trained mare showed her class over the last 300 metres, quickly picking her opposition off one by one and by the last 100 metres she had hit the front and held on to win by a length.

The third and final ride of the day for the talented local hoop saw him take a nasty fall riding four year-old gelding trained by Matthew Kelly, ‘Mammoth Mountain’.

The gelding opened up in betting at $5.00 and straight out of the gates was ridden on the pace by Heywood.

With just over half the race ran Heywood made a mid-race move, progressing the gelding forward into the leaders position with about 800 metres left.

As the field turned for home at the 600 metres, Heywood found trouble falling off and seemingly taking a few stomps from horses passing by as you can see him in the background during the race holding his mid section.

Nick has not got back in the saddle since his fall, hopefully he’s back to riding very soon and the Times wish Nick all the best in his recovery after the worrying fall.

Tully Potts