You can’t argue that Lance O’Sullivan isn’t one of New Zealand’s greatest sporting personalities. He just is. A guy that has spent 23 years carving out a career as one of New Zealand’s best jockey’s, a member of one of New Zealand’s most successful racing families, a husband and a dad.

On Wednesday 17 April 2002 Lance moved his name to the top of yet another records list, this time for the total number of winners for a jockey in New Zealand. In the last race on the card at Rotorua on Wednesday, Lance kicked home his 2,157^th winner to eclipse the record held for 17 years by Bill Skelton.

"Relief." That was the answer that Lance gave when asked his first reaction. Such was the interest in Lance’s quest to break the record he said that he felt the pressure a little bit. "Other people seemed more worried about it than I was," he said last week.

Everybody has a defining moment in their lives, that event that can mean the making or breaking of a person’s career. For Lance, one such event was his horrific fall at Moonee Valley on Cox Plate day in 1997. "If I hadn’t had the accident," he said, "I would have given it away." "It" being race riding and a career as a jockey that has spanned over two decades and looks set to continue for a little longer.

It took 18 months for Lance to recover from the fall that shattered his leg, most of that time was spent in excruciating pain. It took three operations to get his leg anywhere near right and a lot of hard work.

Now on the verge of winning his eleventh New Zealand jockey’s premiership, Lance is back near the top of his game, something he considers one of his greatest achievements.