Popular jockey Harry Coffey remains on track to ride Shockletz in the Melbourne Cup after a “successful” procedure to repair a right collarbone injury.
Coffey, 31, had surgery on Sunday, at the earliest opportunity, and left the door ajar, pending further approvals, for a remarkable Melbourne Cup “glimmer of hope”.
Coffey has been afforded every chance by Shockletz’s managing owner Laurence Eales and connections to race the clock.
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Coffey contacted Eales on Sunday to provide an update.
“The operation went really well,” Eales said.
“He’s got full movement, feels great, feels the same and all that.”
Coffey was injured in a fall at Flemington on Saturday and went to hospital for assessment on a suspected fractured collarbone.
Coffey was transferred to the Epworth Hospital on Sunday for a procedure with orthopaedic surgeon Dr Andrew Oppy.
Coffey’s long-time manager Dean Hawkes said the procedure went well with a decision to be made on Monday around availability.
“There’s still a couple of things to tick off,” Hawkes said.
“There’s positivity out of today.”
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Coffey is likely to make a judgement call on Monday, with jockey Michael Dee understood to be on standby to ride Shockletz, if required.
Eales said connections wanted to reward Coffey’s commitment to Shockletz, a $10 favourite to win the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday at Flemington.
“He’s had a great affiliation with the horse, gone to all the trouble wasting to get down to 51kg,” Eales said.
“We have to take care of our owners too, going into the Melbourne Cup, making sure we’ve got a jockey on, who’s 100 per cent, but in saying that, they were all happy to wait and see.
“Everyone was under a lot of pressure (after Coffey fell) to change riders and I said no, let’s see how he is first.”
The uncertainty ironically mirrored Eales’s experience in 2009 with eventual Melbourne Cup winner Shocking, the sire of Shockletz.
“Geez I didn’t have a jockey for Shocking in 2009 until about an hour before the barrier draw, we had no jockey.”
Shocking qualified for the Cup the Saturday before the race but the 51kg weight was beyond regular jockey Michael Rodd and most available riders at the time.
Jockey Corey Brown only became available late because his would-be ride Vigor missed the field after Shocking’s win.