WELL-TRAVELLED jockey Jacque Brown's winning ride aboard the Jay Morris-trained Whetstone at Buchanan Park on Saturday would have only come as a surprise to those in the medical profession.
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Two years ago the 27-year-old was told by doctors that she would never ride competitively again after suffering an injury at Randwick.
"I tore the ligament off my tibia so hard a chunk went off with it so I had about five surgeries on that," she said.
"It made things a lot harder to begin with but I was determined to get back to what I love doing."
Motivation has been one of the cornerstones of Brown's career in the industry with the Toowoomba local forced to overcome numerous obstacles to achieve her dream.
Brown expressed interest in the sport at an early age but her parents didn't share her enthusiasm for the career path.
"I had always wanted to be a jockey," she said.
"I wanted to leave school at 15 but my parents wanted me to go to uni so I went to Townsville to study a bachelor of communication design."
Her yearning to be on the track stayed with her throughout her studies and in 2005, after differing her degree for five years, she went to start her jockey apprenticeship under Toowoomba trainer Rex Lipp where she has been ever since.
Brown rode her first winner in 2007 and has made numerous interstate trips for races.
She rates her most recent trip to NSW as one of the highlights of her career.
"Travelling down to Sydney on loan to Kevin Moses was a really exciting time for me," she said.
"It opened my eyes up to a lot of things because everything is so different down there."
Brown also recently completed a trip to Melbourne where she rode in the apprentice race at Moonee Valley.
She enjoyed the travel, but said her injury means that she has to keep most of her races in the local area.
"I've contemplated going away again but I have to be careful with my knee the way it is," she said.
"It's sort of forced me to slow up a bit."
When it first happened, Brown was forced out of the sport for 18 months.
The nature of the injury has meant she has spent a large part of her eight year career out of the saddle.
Despite the hardship, she is philosophical about the impact it has had, describing the time away as a necessary sacrifice of her occupation.
"I didn't expect my recovery to take so long but its just one of those things," she said.
"That's racing. You've just got to hope for the best and expect the worst."
Now coming up for Brown are some race meets in her local area.
She said she has enjoyed coming out west to race but is looking forward to competing in her home town.
"I love coming here but I want to focus more on Toowoomba and the bush areas."