Darleen Duryea on the comeback trail

By Jordan Gerrans

Fuelled by her own dogged determination and perseverance, Queensland trainer Darleen Duryea is on the verge of completing one of the great comeback achievements. 

The Beaudesert-based Duryea suffered serious spinal injuries and bleeding on the brain after a trackwork fall in June of 2021.

Following the fall, the Queensland branch of the Australian Trainers’ Association, among other bodies within racing, wrapped their arms around the Duryea family with significant sums of money raised to help with everything she needs in her rehabilitation as well modifying her home to allow for her wheelchair.  

Almost five years on from the life-changing fall, Duryea is remarkably back training and is likely to have her first starter back since the tragic incident early next month. 

The 49-year-old has been trialing former Hong Kong galloper Please Stand Up in recent weeks and she is eager to give him his first Australian start soon. 

Duryea hasn’t taken a horse to the races since June of 2021 and despite the extensive rehabilitation following her fall, she was always hell-bent to make a training return.

“The horses, I have been brought in this industry and I know nothing else,” she said.

“I was always going to get back into it. It was a matter of how bad did I want it and I just had to fight as hard as I could to get back at it.

“Even to get back this far and have a horse trialing, there is a sense of achievement.

“Initially, my parents were told that I belonged in a nursing home and I wasn’t going to make it very far.

“But, they underestimated me.”

From her Kerry base in the Scenic Rim region, Duryea has been back at the Beaudesert track in recent weeks with her gelding. 

Hard-working hoop Gregory Walters has taken on Please Stand Up’s riding duties and the comeback trainer was effusive in her praise of the jockey's efforts with the galloper. 

In her all-terrain wheelchair, Duryea overseas the six-year-olds trackwork and tries to be as hands on with his preparation as possible.

“I park in the car where I can see everything that is going on,” she said.

“And, the guys ride up to me on the horse and talk to me through the fence and away we go.

“I just try and do as much as I can. I am pretty excited about it all because he is a pretty good horse to have lining up in a maiden.

“I think he will crack a maiden pretty soon.”

Central Queensland trainer Darryl Johnston also prepares a team of horses out of a wheelchair after he suffered a fall many years ago.

Former Darling Downs jockey Kristy Banks is also hands-on with her husband Dale Groves' horses from her wheelchair after a fall cut short her riding career. 

Please Stand Up raced as Copartner Pudong in Hong Kong. 

He went to the races on six occasions but didn’t make an impact.

He was last at the races in September of 2023 before eventually being imported to Australia and landing with Duryea in the Sunshine State. 

“I thought he looked like a nice horse the first time I saw him in the paddock,” she said.

“He is showing the promise that I thought I saw in the paddock looking at him back then.

“He is a nicely bred horse and he obviously didn’t suit the environment in Hong Kong, which is fairly common, some of them thrive on it and some don’t.

“He had no issues in Hong Kong, but they just quickly said he wasn’t going to cut it there.

“I don’t think it was about his ability, it was just the environment over there didn’t suit him.

“He has landed here just outside of Beaudesert and it is beautiful for him.”

Please Stand Up has put in two impressive trials since restarting his career, finishing in the top three at Doomben and at Eagle Farm over the last month.

In his latest trial on Tuesday, Duryea reported that champion hoop Michael Rodd was pleased with his effort as she targets a maiden event at Eagle Farm early next month over 1400 metres.

“They have been good the trials and I am just working out if I give him another one before a race start,” she said.

“He may go to a trial at Deagon before now and the race, but I will have a chat to Michael Rodd about it.

“Michael can have the race ride if he wants it as he rode the horse in the trial and he was happy with the run.

“The horse is a little bit green and still has a lot to learn but, on the trials, he looks like a nice stayer in the making.”

As the gelding raced as Copartner Pudong overseas, Duryea – who owns the galloper on her own – needed to select a new name for his Australian campaign.

Despite having her life changed forever in the tragic fall all those years ago, Duryea has kept her sense of humour. 

“Well, I was doing my best to stand up at the time when he arrived and I thought it worked,” she said.

“Like Slim Shady in the Eminem song - please stand up.

“I was listening to that song one day when he was in the paddock and I thought that would do for a name.

“This is my kind of humour. His stable name is Shady now.”

In her rehabilitation bid, Duryea is making progress. 

She attends her physiotherapy appointments a few times a week and a few months ago she took several independent steps in leg braces. 

Duryea was born into racing; her father Doug trained while she was growing up, with her parents estimating she rode a horse for the first time when she was about three years of age.

She was riding trackwork when she was barely a teenager, before the sport she loved took her to the other side of the world after being handed a scholarship working with Aidan O’Brien in Ireland.

Duryea prepared more than a 100 winners before the fall halted her training career, headlined by the 2016-17 campaign where she collected 23 victories at a 14% strike-rate.