O’Reilly faces final hurdle in long-awaited return to the sulky
Matt Markham - Raceform • October 4th, 2025 11:00 AM • 4 min read
One of the forgotten stars of harness racing is almost ready to step back into the spotlight.
Just one final tick from medical professionals is all that stands in the way of gun horsewoman Sarah O’Reilly getting back out on the track in the sulky – the last piece in the puzzle of a long and arduous recovery from a trackwork injury which has sidelined her for the past 15 months.
Last week O’Reilly returned to work and to driving fast work for her employers Brent and Tim White, and it’s a case of so far so good for the talented reinswoman.
“Everything has been good, the arm is feeling fine,” she told RaceForm. “I’ve been cleared to get back to work and do a bit of driving. I’m only doing a couple of hours a day at the moment.
“I think, given how the arm is feeling and the way it’s handled being back at work and stuff, that it shouldn’t be too much of a problem, it’s just a case of getting that final okay to return.”
O’Reilly was driving trackwork in July of last year when the horse behind her jumped into her cart and crushed her. She suffered a broken upper arm and cheekbone.
“They were young horses, it wasn’t anyone’s fault or anything, just one of those things.”
The initial prognosis was up to six months of recovery before she could return to driving, but the broken arm failed to mend correctly and set things back a long way.
“After a CT scan they said it wasn’t healing properly, which was pretty disappointing. It required more surgery and put things back even further.”
That was in February and ever since, O’Reilly has been working determinedly to get herself as fit and as strong as possible to return to driving – a feat she managed for the first time in a long time during September.
“It was good to be back out there doing it again. I’ve still got a bit of work to do before I go back to the races, but it’s not really something you want to rush either.”
She’s hoping to meet with her doctor again to get the all-clear to return within the next week or so and then wants to give herself some time driving at the trials and workouts again to try and get up to speed.
“Being back driving a bit of fast work has been good, but I’ve been out for a long time, so getting as much practice in before actually going to the races again will be important.
“I’d like to think there will be a few workouts and trials before going to the races, but we’ll just see how things play out I guess.”
The accident couldn’t have come at a worse time for O’Reilly. She had just entered into her first season as an open horsewoman, having graduated from the junior ranks where she was the dominant force, winning the national junior drivers’ championship on four occasions over five years.
In her five previous seasons she racked up some big numbers with winning tallies of 78, 70 and 76 and went to the sidelines with 304 career wins already to her name. Those are numbers which parallel closely to those of Samantha Ottley at the same stage in her career.
With 32 wins on the board for the season before the accident, things were looking bright and O’Reilly now faces effectively having to start all over again, although the support from trainers who used her in the past is expected to largely still be there.
“I’ll have to try and build things up again, they won’t be anywhere near where they were when I had the accident, but hopefully we can grow it over the rest of the year.
“I am excited at the prospect of getting back out there. It’s been good just being back driving work again. I was getting pretty bored there for a while.”
While she’s been out of the driving side of the game, O’Reilly didn’t completely walk away from things and during her time out became licensed as a trainer and lined up her first horse in maiden pacer Sweet Betty. Her father Gerard has been handling most of the day-to-day duties while she’s been out of action but there’s been a close eye kept on all proceedings.
In keeping with the family theme, O’Reilly has taken over the use of her late grandfather Hubert Christey’s colours for her training career.
Christey was a noted Mid Canterbury horseman who trained solid performers like Little Jolter, De Valora and Bomber Bill as well as NZ Trotting Free-For-All winner Master Bomber.
Sweet Betty raced at Timaru on Sunday, finishing seventh after starting from the outside of the mobile arm, and will now be pointed toward the Akaroa Trotting Club meeting in a fortnight.
“She’s no star, but she’s an honest wee horse who hasn’t had much luck with draws and in running so far this time in. She’ll keep getting better too.”
There’s a high chance O’Reilly may be represented by two runners at the Akaroa meeting with trotter Bizza To’o also earmarked to make his debut there.
The three-year-old by Muscle Mass, named after NRL star Brian To’o, qualified at Ashburton on Tuesday and has looked a progressive horse in all of his public runs.
“He’s going to be a nice horse, there’s still a few things to iron out with him but we’ve pencilled in Akaroa for him if everything goes to plan.”
Bizza To’o is a half-brother to Moses who races out of her father’s stable at the Ashburton Racecourse, where she also has her horses based.
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