With an aggravated shoulder injury from his past, driver Jonathan Drury took off the final month of the 2016 harness racing season to undergo corrective surgery, but that didn’t keep the 27-year-old reinsman from posting a career-year for earnings.
The Guelph, Ont. horseman won 131 races in 2016 and drove winners of more than $2.78 million in purse earnings, improving upon his $2.14 million season in 2015 and cracking Canada’s top 10 leaderboard in the process.
Drury last raced on Saturday, Nov. 19 at Woodbine Racetrack before his scheduled surgery the following Friday to help relieve pinched and inflamed tendons in his shoulder that developed from past injuries to the area.
“I was in an accident when I was younger, a school bus accident, and kind of landed on it. I got in an accident [racing] at Georgian Downs a long time ago and seemed to land on it. It just seems everything I do I kind of bang up that same spot,” explained Drury. “It was never really anything serious, but over time it got worse and worse. There was like a hook on the end of the bone in my shoulder and it was pinching all the tendons so, with wear and tear, my tendons became inflamed and there was less room for them to move and everything was just grinding away.”
Drury explained that through surgery, doctors were able to shave the end of the bone off to create more space and alleviate the inflammation in the tendons.
Well into his expected recovery period of two to three months, Drury reported that he is ahead of schedule in his physiotherapy.
“Everything has been going really well actually,” Drury told Trot Insider on Wednesday afternoon. “I’m ahead of schedule with the rehab. I was supposed to be close to two weeks in a sling before I started anything and they actually got me in for rehab five days after my surgery and got things started. Things have been going really well; my movement is coming back pretty good and I’ve got most of my range of motion back. It’s just a matter of getting it strengthened up now.”
Drury will check in with his surgeon on January 10 to review his case and get a better idea of a timeline for his return to racing action, but is hopeful that he will be able to resume driving before the end of the month.
Drury’s 2016 campaign was highlighted by an Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final victory with the Colin Johnson-trained Arsenal Seelster and multiple Gold wins aboard O’Brien Award finalist Betting Line for the Casie Coleman stable. And the rising star has lots to look forward to in 2017, including the return of a pair of promising pacing fillies.
“I look forward to seeing Candlelight Dinner back this year,” said Drury of the Coleman trainee he drove to victory in the Eternal Camnation Stakes and finished third in the Three Diamonds on his final race day of 2016. “I was also a really big fan of Casie’s filly Fade there last year and I think you’ll hear from her again this year. I think she’s going to come back to be even better than she was last year. She finished off in her prime and was locked-in in the Super Final and I got out late [to finish second]. I think she probably had a good shot to get there if I could have got out sooner, but I think she’s going to be a nice filly this year. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing her come back and obviously that colt of Colin’s, Arsenal Seelster, again. Hopefully, he comes back bigger and stronger.”