Allpress currently sits on 122 winners for the season with an eight-win buffer on Johnathan Parkes in what is a tribute to her will to succeed following bleak times and questions whether her career was over.
In a nasty incident at the Hawera jump-outs in late 2017, she came to grief and suffered serious shoulder injuries and a lengthy period on the side-lines.
“There were times after that fall that I didn’t even think I would ride again,” Allpress said. “When you’ve got to get someone else to dress you and feed you it seems a long way if you’d ever get back on top of a horse.
“I did my shoulders. I did the AC joint on my left shoulder and I ripped a muscle off the bone on my right shoulder and had to have surgery on the right and at the same time my left shoulder wasn’t in a great way either.
Lisa Allpress
“I had no movement in my arms for probably six weeks and once I had the operation on the right side I couldn’t move that for another six weeks.”
“I had no movement in my arms for probably six weeks and once I had the operation on the right side I couldn’t move that for another six weeks.” – Lisa Allpress.
Allpress was out of action for five months and returned in March last year and celebrated in style with five winners at Riccarton on her second day back. She ended an interrupted 2017-18 term with 56 winners and started 2018-19 with one focus.
“At the start of this season I set myself a goal to win the premiership again to be 100 per cent honest,” she said.
“There’s been a few times I thought it’s not going to happen. I had a couple of quite big suspensions through the year, which wasn’t ideal but then you get on a roll.
“It’s the first time I’ve actually gone out and thought this is what I’m going to do, just to prove I could. It’s been great, especially to come back from those injuries and be on top of the premiership.”
Maiden century
Allpress posted her first century of winners in a season in 2009-10 and has now replicated that feat a further five times, winning the premiership in 2011-12 with 159 and in 2015-16 with 171.
The vastly-experienced jockey is closing in on 1500 domestic successes and has ridden in Australia, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore and also rode with success in Japan in 2015.
Allpress returned there the following year, but her stint was cut short by a leg injury after she was unseated from a 2-year-old on the way to the barrier. She is open for a future return, but only on a short-time basis.
“I could go back if I wanted, but it’s not a great place for the kids,” she said. “At the end of the day I’ve been there and done that. I would love to go back on an invitation maybe for a weekend, but I’m pretty settled where I’m at.”
Allpress has two sons, 14-year-old Josh and 11-year-old Angus with husband and former trainer Karl and has no desire to leave them on another extended overseas stint.
“I love hanging out with them when I’m not riding and I just don’t think I could do that,” she said.
“I could go back if I wanted, but it’s not a great place for the kids. At the end of the day I’ve been there and done that.” – Lisa Allpress.
The Allpress family are resident on their 530-acre farm at Fordell on the outskirts of Wanganui.
“It keeps Karl fairly busy and we graze dairy heifers for Wrightsons and we also raise our own stock,” she said.
Karl formerly trained in partnership at Matamata with the now Sydney-based John Sargent and since their move back to the Wanganui region he has successfully dabbled in training and trading.
“We don’t have any horses at the moment,” Lisa Allpress said. “A big part of the reason for moving back down here was so I could concentrate on my riding.
“Karl’s a very good trainer, but it’s hard when his wife is a jockey and she’s got to ride them and he’d have to pay staff and get up and go to races, whether you’ve got fast ones of slow ones.”
No firm plan
Allpress, 44, has no set plan as to how long she will continue to ride for.
“I keep saying I’ll do another couple of years and then I say another couple,” she said. “I really don’t know, at the moment I’m still enjoying what I do. Obviously I don’t enjoy the winter as much as I used to, but who does.”
Lisa Allpress aboard All About Magic
While she is right on target to finish this season as champion jockey, Allpress is taking nothing for granted.
“I’m certainly not going to count my chickens before they hatch,” she said. “I’ll wait and see what happens, Johnathan (Parkes) is such a good jockey that he could come out and ride four and five in a day anytime,” Allpress said.
