O'Connor speaks of his relief Matt O'Connor reflected this morning with Des Cahill on Morning Ireland, in the aftermath of his initial winner since returning to the saddle. Of course that came aboard Kimberlite King in the 20% Online Discount Beginners Chase at Fairyhouse yesterday. The Bannow, Co. Wexford native explained: "Basically it was just a normal beginners chase, novicey jumpers, and I took a horrible fall (from Walkin Aisy at Thurles on March 26th 2009) and obviously just landed on my head. I had damage to the front left side of my brain, the frontal lobe. "I was in a coma for twelve days and I was in hospital for a further six weeks and then I was up in Dun Laoghaire for another six to eight weeks in the Rehab. "I'm very grateful for the care I got there. My family went through twice as bad a time as I did. Of the day itself I remember absolutely nothing. It was probably only about a week after I woke up and came around and realised what was going on. "Riding was all I ever had or ever wanted to do. So I never ever thought of doing anything else. To be fair to my family they were quite supportive though maybe they were thinking in the back of their minds that they'd rather I didn't, but they were supportive of me anyway. "Surprisingly enough I wasn't tense when I went back, I was kind of half surprised by that myself. Luckily enough us jockeys are known for having no fear and luckily in one way I don't remember what happened because maybe if I did remember what happened maybe I'd have been a bit like that (tense) alright. "It was just a feeling of relief when I won yesterday. I'd hit the crossbar ten or fifteen times since I came back, finishing second and third. The other riders were very supportive, they were delighted for me, a lot of them came up and shook my hand afterwards, well dones all round. "Hopefully I'll keep kicking them in now, please God. Obviously like any other jockey I'd like to be the top, maybe the next big name on the papers. Basically though I want to ride as many winners as I can before I retire, whenever it might be."
