Newly-crowned Highveld Champion Apprentice, Lyle Hewitson
Champion apprentice in waiting and recipient of this week’s Highveld Award for Champion Apprentice, Lyle Hewitson has taken a step closer to getting back into the saddle.
A little over two weeks after his surgery, Lyle reported back to Dr Harry Papapgapiou for a check-up on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 and received some very encouraging news. The July is seven weeks from the day I fell,” he explains, “so when he asked me when do I want to be back in the saddle, I said ‘ideally just before the July’. “Dr Papapgapiou said he sees no problem with that,” he says with delight.
Lyle will now head back to the gym to start cycling and swimming to ‘get my weight down and my fitness up’. He will also continue his hyperbaric therapy and hopes to be back at gallops on 20 June, with a view to being back at the racetrack for the Turffontein meeting on 25 June 2017. Better yet, that timeline puts him back in contention for this year’s Vodacom Durban July.
Lyle had his first ride in the 2016 Vodacom Durban July, partnering Snaith Racing’s Dynamic. They jumped from pole position to lead the vanguard all the way up the straight and finished within 4 lengths of The Conglomerate. The Avontuur-sponsored rider confirms he does have a potential July engagement, but can’t confirm which horse it might be just yet.
