In typical fashion, Mick Tubman still finds a way to have a laugh even after his latest health scare.
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It’s been close to a month since the larrikin trainer was hospitalised by a serious stroke, but Tubman says he is hopeful he has ‘got it all under control now’.
Despite still showing the after effects of the scare, he has returned to work at his Kembla Grange base.
And the 68-year-old reckons he has good reason to be there.
“The horses are going good so I can’t go just yet,” Tubman says with a laugh.
“They all went brilliantly [on Tuesday] morning so that is going to keep me going.”
For Tubman, it wasn’t all so jovial just a few weeks ago when a routine morning at trackwork ended with the veteran horseman in the back of an ambulance.
“I was standing at the back of the joint here where I watch the trackwork from the first time and I went to myself, ‘woah, what’s going on’ and I nearly fell down,” Tubman, who suffered a heart attack while at Berkeley Pub in 2013, explains.
“And then I staggered over and thought I am in trouble here.
“I went and sat on the lounge and I couldn’t talk, you couldn’t understand me.
“Then about five minutes later I came good.”
A hospital visit still followed where Tubman would be told he had two suspected ‘little minor strokes’.
But the worst of it was still to come.
“I went home and then about a week later I got the big one,” Tubman said.
“It feels like all the power is going out of you.”
Fortunately, over the past few weeks the majority of that power has come back.
And while he is undergoing regular visits to the doctors, Tubman maintains a positive outlook.
“I am slowly getting there so hopefully I keep going,” he told The Punt.
“I am getting better all the time and starting to talk a bit better now too.
“I’m back on the job.”
Tubman was back on course at the Nowra Cup meeting last Sunday when his son of star filly Chance Bye flashed home for a promising third in the Kinghorn Ford Everest Maiden Handicap (1100m).
The gelding by Sebring known as Dreams Alive couldn’t muster early before surging down the centre of the track to round out the placings behind Kembla trainer Lauren Davies’ Force The Issue and Henry Reeves-trained Stormy Benz.
“It was a good run,” Tubman said.
“He couldn’t get going early but when he did he got to the line.
“I have been thinking he is like his mum but he is a typical Sebring, which tend to be late maturers and want a bit of ground.
“After a run like that we will give it to him now.”
Tubman has nominated three-year-old Lady Wynette to run in a 1200m maiden at Kembla Grange on Saturday.
The filly by Snippetson is yet to salute after six visits to the races, but has placed on four occasions, including three at her home track.
A full list of acceptances for Saturday’s eight race card at the Illawarra Turf Club will come out on Thursday morning.
