Sarah Rushbrook blames legendary race caller Johnny Tapp.
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Speaking from her Kootingal home, a month and a half into a marathon recuperation after sustaining serious injuries in a shocking accident in the Inverell Cup, Rushbrook says the frustration she feels at not being able to drive is the result of a bug biting her that Tapp - a close family friend - exposed her to.
Tapp was the best man at the wedding of Rushbrook's parents, and she grew up calling him "uncle".
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"I used to take a week off and go for a holiday at his place [in Sydney], and I'd go to Harold Park with him, and I'd go to Penrith.
"And one day I was down there and I said, 'Sit me behind a horse'. And he did, and that was the end of that: I was hooked."
Fast forward many years to Inverell Paceway on March 29, and Rushbrook was flying out of control through the air - after being violently catapulted from her gig in the Inverell Cup.
She estimates she was flung some five metres into the air, the impact with the ground leaving her with a badly broken leg, a fractured vertebrae, seven cracked ribs and a punctured lung.
Teenage Moonbi driver Elly Chapple was another casualty from the crash. She broke her elbow and was knocked out after being trampled by horses. Both drivers were choppered to Lismore Hospital, and both were operated on.
A 12-year veteran driver, it was Rushbrook's first race fall. "I've always been one who's said, 'If you're gonna do something, do it properly'. I guess I did that.
"I remember all of it ... I can tell you everything that happened ... The take-off was 10 out of 10, but the landing needs a bit of work."
Rushbrook estimates she landed about 10m further up the track. Winded, she propped herself up on an elbow and then lay down again trying to get her breath back.
"And once I got my breath back, I thought, 'Right oh, I'm stiff and sore, but time to get up now'. And I went to move my legs ... one moved and the other one didn't want to move [her femur was "snapped clean in half"]."
Waiting for the paramedics, she wiggled her toes to confirm she was not paralysed. "I thought, 'I'll just lay here and let them come and get me.'"
Rushbrook has been unable to work since the crash. She works as a support carer full-time, but she also trains pacers. "It's all backwards," she laughed when it was pointed out that she is the one who needs support now.
Luckily, she receives workers compensation through her affiliation with Harness Racing NSW.
The medical advice is that she will be sidelined for a year because of the broken leg. "I told them six month, and they rolled their eyes and laughed at me.
"Look, it's just day by day at the moment ... I'm doing physio every day, and I'm getting much more movement in it." She added: "It's just gonna be a slow process - very frustrating."
