Luke Nolan will be looking forward to the turning of the calendar

There has been plenty of time spent on the sidelines for Luke Nolan in 2024. The new year is going to start the same way for the experienced hoop. The injuries that he suffered in a fall last week are more serious than was first suspected and will result in time out of the saddle.

Luke Nolan’s Geelong accident worse than first appeared

Nolan’s luck has really been out this year and his Geelong accident was a bit of a freak one to continue in that vein. His stirrup leather broke under him, sending him to the turf and bringing down another one in the field who was behind him.

A broken nose and cracked ribs were quickly identified but it was announced on Wednesday that Nolan has a fractured ankle to add to the injury list. He will be operated on this week for the ankle before he undergoes surgery again next week for his facial injuries.

It was a fall that saw him miss time earlier in the year when doing some trackwork. Although he is not old for a hoop, his injuries this year are clearly not a help to him looking for some career longevity.

Missing big races as time ticks by

2024 will not be one that Nolan looks back on fondly. He missed two months early in the year with a perforated bowel, an injury that is probably as awful as it sounds. That saw him miss two Group 1 rides on I Wish I Win. Luckily for Nolan, he was back on the star when he saluted in the Kingsford Smith Cup in early June.

It is fortunate that once more Nolan is out at a quiet time of year, hoping that he will be back for the majority of the Autumn Carnival. There is no set return to the saddle date, it is too early in the recovery process for that.

At the age of 44 and with injuries hitting at a more regular rate this year, Nolan will be desperate to show that he is still as good as ever when he does get that opportunity to get back into race action.

44-year-old Nolan is 30 shy of 2000

One of the first aims for 2025 will be to salute for the 2000th time in Australia. That is a huge tally for any jockey to get to, with Nolan sat on the brink of the total. They have come from more than 14,300 rides, making him a true veteran of the sport.

40 Group 1 wins so far in Nolan’s career is another number that most hoops could only ever dream of. The support of Peter Moody has been huge throughout his career, saluting 889 times for the trainer for a 19% strike rate. Those numbers give Nolan something to work towards in the new year when he is back.

It was on the Moody-trained superstar Black Caviar that Nolan picked up a huge swathe of his Group 1 successes. 13 of those at home as well as the famous raid on the Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot back in 2011.

On his day, Nolan is in the top echelon of hoops in the country. The constant string of injuries at the age of 44 has the potential to hold him back as he edges to the veteran stage of his career. He lacks nothing in determination but how long can that go on?