Tuesday, 7 August 2012: Outstanding country rider John Kissick, the NSW champion apprentice in 2011/12, will again make a belated start to the new season as he recovers from a niggling injury.
Leeton-based Kissick was a runaway winner of the 2011/12 NSW apprentice's premiership, riding 83 winners to beat Sydney's leading apprentices Chad Schofield (76) and Sam Clipperton (70) for the title.
However his winning margin would have been much greater as he spent to the first three months of the season sidelined with a broken collarbone and missed most of July recovering from a broken finger.
He is still a couple of weeks away from resuming due to complications with his finger injury.
"I was supposed to be back a couple of weeks ago but X-rays showed the finger wasn't healing," Kissick said.
"Hopefully I can get a clearance soon and be back riding."
Kissick's outstanding strike rate saw him win the country apprentice's title from Rachel Murray by 28 wins, win the SDRA riding premiership by a wide margin from his senior rivals and finish fifth on the NSW country premiership behind Greg Ryan, Brendan Ward, Robert Thompson and Kevin Sweeney.
Kissick rode only two city winners last season but the demand for his services from top metropolitan stables is certain to grow, especially as he can still claim 3kg in city and provincial races.
He lost his claim in country races last year but the 21-year-old says he is in no rush to leave his master Peter Clancy at Leeton for a stint in Sydney despite numerous approaches from city stables.
The modest Kissick will not complete his apprenticeship until 2014 and says he has plenty of time to take up a stint with a city stable.
"I've been put on by a lot of trainers and I appreciate that. I will just keep working hard trying to get winners," he said.
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