Waller apprentice poised to bounce back quickly from fall

Siena Grima is keen to get back into the winners for new boss Chris Waller after the apprentice fell largely unscathed in less than a fortnight on loan with Sydney’s leading trainer.

Grima had to pass standard cognitive tests before the Canterbury meeting on Friday night before he could return to racing following his fall at Warwick Farm on Wednesday. He had six runs at Randwick on Saturday, five of which were for Waller, who gave the Kempsey product a three-month loan.

The 23-year-old was in fourth place at the opening of the race on Wednesday with Ichiban Koji for Waller when the Blue Point colt stumbled, fell and died midway through the race. Grima attempted to take the struggling horse out of the race before crashing into the grass. He was kept there for the remainder of the meeting and taken to the hospital for scans and observation before being released later that night.

Grima returned to work on Friday and was confident he had the right to continue.

“I feel fine, I just have muscle soreness from hitting the ground, but I’m really lucky to come out of this situation unscathed,” Grima said on Friday.

“I felt him start to shake and I wasn’t sure if he had broken something or damaged a tendon, but thankfully I was riding with the best in the business so they were watching and they all moved out of the way so I wasn’t going to get run over when I had to jump before I hit the ground.

“I hit the ground hard but I was lucky I was able to half slow it down enough for it not to be too bad. It could have been a lot worse.”

Grima escaped with a scratch above his eyebrow and a brief bout of dizziness immediately after the fall. The three-kilogram challenger, who has been a racing cyclist for less than two years, had fallen twice before but both times were in pursuit of winning position and did not cause any injury.