Following a major health scare, veteran trainer Cecil Hodgson is back doing what he loves – riding trackwork and training winners.
The Coonamble trainer, who had three years off between 2019 and 2022, has recently enjoyed a good run of success.
Twyborn Affair, formerly of the Darren Hyde yard, broke through for a maiden win over the 900m at Walgett in June before making it back-to-back wins in the 1100m Benchmark 45 Handicap at Carinda in July.
Then racing at Gilgandra earlier this month, a recent acquisition from the Clint Lundholm yard, The Big Seal, was first-up for the stable when breaking through for career win number three in the 800m Benchmark 50 Handicap.
“Everyone has their turn,” a humble Hodson told NSW Country and Picnic Racing.
“They’re no world beaters, and they’ll do it tough when they have to go to TAB meetings, but they have done all right so far.”
The mere fact that Hodgson is training and back riding trackwork let alone training winners, is incredible when you consider that just four years ago, he went under the knife for open-heart surgery.
A Racing NSW-mandated medical found an issue, and Hodgson explained that he had the surgery and needed significant time off.
“When you turn 60, you have to do a medical, and I went to the doctor, and there was a new doctor there that said I had a heart murmur and that it was pretty loud,” Hodgson said.
“I had been going to the doctors for years, and I’ve always had the heart murmur, but they sent me to Dubbo for tests, and when I went back in, there was a young doctor, and he said he couldn’t sign me off because they found something else.
“I was still riding work at that time, and I had an aneurysm, and they said riding or anything like that could rupture it, so I had to have a new valve and new sleeve on it, and I was in Sydney hospital for 13 days, and it’s taken me all that time to come good.”
With trackwork riders hard to come by in Coonamble, Hodgson had to give away training for nearly three years.
“It’s pretty hard to get work riders and things out here, and I love riding my own work, but I just had to give it away,” Hodgson said.
“The way I saw it, I couldn’t train them if I couldn’t ride them.”
It was a difficult decision to stop training at the time, as Hodgson had a handle stable, which included the likes of A Martin Placepick and A Magic Zariz.
“I won the Narromine Cup A Magic Zariz; I broke him in, and he also finished second in the Dubbo Cup and won the Carinda, Walgett, and Enngonia Cups, and to be honest, I rather go to them sort of meetings,” Hodgson said.
“I had some good horses, and a tea, that we had built up.”
Hodgson, who, as a 15-year-old jockey, won the 1974 Louth Cup on Betty’s Gift, is back doing what he loves most, but he admitted that it was in a somewhat limited capacity.
“I’m back now, and I’m still not 100%, but it feels heaps better since I’ve been backing riding work,” Hodgson said.
“I can’t do anything else. I watched TV for two years, and I got sick of that, and I got up to 96kg when I was off, but I’m back down now, and it’s good.
“I’m not as good as I once was, and that’s why I’ve only got the two in work; It takes me two hours to work two horses.”
Hodgson officially returned to training in 2022 and had no luck with a couple of tried horses, but with Twyborn Affair and The Big Seal in his yard, he’ll be out to continue the excellent run.
While he’d rather head to a non-TAB meeting, Hodgson will trek to Narromine on Sunday, with The Big Seal set to contest the 800m Benchmark 66 Handicap, while Twyborn Affair will go around in the 1300m Country Boosted Benchmark 58 Handicap.
