HE was almost immune to injuries since his career as a jockey started as an apprentice, but Andrew Adkins has had a number of reality checks over the last 18 months.
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As horse racing maintains its status as the last remaining sport still active during COVID-19, Adkins is recovering from another injury.
While fellow jockeys are still arriving at various racecourses around the country and marching on, Adkins is eyeing a return soon.
"They say bad luck comes in threes so hopefully that's it," he said.
Adkins suffered three fractures in his back, a fractured sternum, ribs, jaw and nose during a horror fall at Randwick Racecourse on April 13 last year.
They say bad luck comes in threes so hopefully that's it.
- Andrew Adkins
Seven months later, after recovering from those injuries, he broke his wrist before another arm injury capped off an unlucky return to the sport.
"The fall at Randwick busted me up really bad," Adkins said.
Despite the setbacks, Adkins has managed to keep a positive outlook.
"It's hard to keep your head above water, but it could always be worse and I've treated (the latest lay-off) like a bit of a holiday," he said.
"Holidays are not always things that are around the corner (in horse racing) and you know things could always be worse.
"That's the only way to cope with it before you start to get into a dark place and that's never a good place to be."
The time away from the sport has given Adkins a chance to see what measures Racing NSW have implemented to ensure the sport can continue in the current environment.
It's hard to keep your head above water, but it could always be worse and I've treated (the latest lay-off) like a bit of a holiday while I can.
- Andrew Adkins
Adkins took his hat off to the governing body, saying the industry played such an important role in everyone's life.
"I know they're doing a great job to keep (the races) afloat, but it's a pretty scary time for everyone," he said.
"It's a bit like a war really and everyone is battling it, but they have the right measures in place and I can't see why they can't keep it going, but it might come down to the government."
Despite all race meetings running behind closed doors, Adkins said the only time jockeys would realise there was no crowd was after races had been completed.
"When there is so much money on the line you've got to be competitive," he said.
"But especially when you have Group 1 riders winning races and coming back and not being able to fist pump to the crowd ... that is a bit weird.
"But when you're in a race you don't hear the crowd anyway; the only day I heard it was riding against Winx and on Everest Day where the crowd is that big."
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