Around this time a year ago, Sonja Wiseman’s life had turned upside down.
Right now, life couldn’t be better.
The Top End jockey was sidelined for three months following a fall on Day 6 of the Darwin Cup Carnival on July 28, 2021.
After being dislodged from her mount Supreme Times entering the home straight, Wiseman landed heavily on Fannie Bay’s dirt surface.
Fellow jockeys Wayne Davis (Somervell) and Alice Lindsay (Jomera) game to grief as well, but thankfully Davis and Lindsay, who has since relocated to South Australia, are back riding.
Wiseman hit her head and, apart from having a seizure, her injury was diagnosed as a traumatic brain injury.
After a three-month recovery, the 30-year-old made a successful return when she remarkably won her comeback race aboard Fromthenevernever for trainer and partner Tom Logan on Melbourne Cup Day.
Since then, Wiseman has gone from strength to strength, riding winners left, right and centre.
On Wednesday, she rode four winners on Day 3 of the Darwin Cup Carnival – that’s after riding four winners on the same day in April during the Alice Springs Cup Carnival.
‘Super Sonja’ has now ridden 27 winners in the Top End for the 2021/22 season and sits third behind Jarrod Todd (37) and Paul Shiers (28.5) – that’s after missing the first three months of the season.
She has also booted home 19 winners in Alice Springs and sits in fourth place in the jockeys’ premiership behind Stan Tsaikos (33), Paul Denton (28) and Jessie Philpot (21).
In the overall NT jockeys’ premiership, Wiseman (46) sits second behind Tsaikos (50) with four Darwin meetings and two Alice Springs meetings remaining in July before the season concludes.
After making a name for herself in Cairns and Townsville, Wiseman, who was born in Cleve in South Australia, has been riding now for over a decade where she has also ridden in South Australia and Victoria.
Arriving in the NT five years ago, Wiseman met Logan in Alice Springs and the couple moved to Darwin before relocating to Rockhampton and then Victoria before returning to the Top End a second time.
Firmly established in the Top End, she will be aiming for back to back wins in the $135,000 Ladbrokes NT Derby (2050m) on Saturday when she partners the Heather Lehmann-trained three-year-old gelding Marvelous Night in the feature race on Day 4 of the Darwin Cup Carnival.
Wiseman rode South Australian galloper Sanblas to victory for Lehmann in the NT Derby last year.
Sadly, she has no recollection of the win as a result of her fall.
“I have no memory – I’ve got the photos, so that’s something,” she said on Thursday.
“It will be good to team up with Heather again – Marvelous Night has been firing and he won well the other day, so I think he’s a good chance.”
Back to the six-race meeting at Fannie Bay on Wednesday.
After a narrow loss in the first race aboard Kym Hann’s Royal Tyke, Wiseman won the next four straight races on Mister Monaro (Mark Nyhan), Smartkap (Nicole Irwin), Valentina Star (Nicole Irwin) and Lady Whistledown (Stephen Brown).
Mister Monaro came from the clouds to seal victory, while the other three basically sat on the speed before eventually asserting their authority.
Valentina Star ($2.60 fav), the Your Song five-year-old mare, was a courageous winner of the $30,000 Rose Bowl (1300m) – the feature race for the fillies and mares race at 0-70 level during the Darwin Cup Carnival.
“It was an absolutely amazing day – I was very fortunate with the rides that I had, so it was great,” Wiseman said.
“I honestly thought Mister Monaro was a bit of a chance.
“Last start, we drew extremely wide – I just got carted off the track a little bit and he came home really well, but I just couldn’t quite pick them up.
“I’ve ridden Smartkap a couple of times now and she has always been honest.
“To me she was an each way chance, but she definitely flew that last 100m – just didn’t bow down to them.
“Valentina Star is a really nice horse, it looked well, Nicky had her well prepared.
“We tried a tongue tie on her and it just seemed to help her that little bit, and she finished off quite strong.
“Lady Whistledown absolutely travelled throughout the whole race – I had a lot of horse still left underneath me.
“Going over the mile we were hoping to be a little bit closer because last start Jarrod Todd rode her – I had a quick chat to him and he just said that she wouldn’t go early, but absolutely flew home.
“So I just tried to keep her that little bit more in touch yesterday, and I just needed that gap to open and as soon as it did we went through it and she kicked away well.”
In regards to her success this season, Wiseman stressed that she hasn’t done anything too different.
“I’ve worked hard to get back into racing, especially with how rough it got after the fall,” she said.
“I got quite heavy in the time that I had off.
“I went to the gym and built up that muscle, and dropped that weight.
“I think that fitness overall probably helped to a degree as well and then on top of it just the support from the trainers.
“It’s probably the most support I’ve actually had up here – I’ve been very lucky and very grateful for all the rides that I’ve been getting.
“I’m getting on nice horses, they’re never too far out of the money and they’re all looking well and feeling well – without the owners and trainers I don’t get the rides.
“I’ve been extremely lucky this season.”
If Wednesday’s success wasn’t enough, Wiseman has already endured an eventful week after spending time in Cairns.
Apart from attending the wedding of good friend Kealy Stallbaum on the weekend, she also had eight rides at the Cairns race meeting on Tuesday before flying back to Darwin first thing the next day.
Riding at the Cairns meeting was tinged with sadness for Wiseman following the passing of the well known North Queensland show society, equestrian and horse racing stalwart and announcer Clive Gordon, who passed away in May aged 87.
“I made it a working holiday and I actually won the Clive Gordon Memorial Maiden Handicap on Koonunga Hill for Trevor Rowe,” she said.
“Clive was a dear friend, he supported me a lot, he was almost like a grandfather when I was there.
“Everyone in the racing industry in North Queensland absolutely loved him.
“It was very touching to win it and even the racecaller said I was one of his favourite jockeys.
“It was nice to get that winner – obviously with a few tears during the presentation.”
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