'Dyesy's back!' The emotions behind the words uttered by Shane Dye's girlfriend, Kelly Walker, were incredible elation and sheer relief as one of Hong Kong's best jockeys made an amazingly rapid recovery from Sunday's emergency brain surgery.
The morning bulletin from the Intensive Care Unit at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin was that Dye's condition was 'stable' in the wake of Sunday's heavy fall from Ambitious Marju in the second race.
But by 7pm last night, the jockey had been visited by a number of friends, family and Jockey Club officials and all were staggered at his progress.
'I've been with him for about an hour, but he's sleeping again now - a lovely deep sleep,' Walker said. 'He was talking well, thinking straight and even cracking jokes and giving cheek. It's just amazing how far he's come today. Dyesy's back!'
Former champion Australian jockey Mick Dittman flew in from Singapore yesterday morning to see his long-time friend and one-time rival, and was also highly relieved.
'On Sunday night we were fearing the worst,' Dittman said. 'A heavy fall, bleeding in the brain, and an emergency operation to relieve pressure in the brain, it doesn't get much worse than that.
'But even though he had a tube down his throat when I saw him, and couldn't speak, he was communicating by writing notes. The writing was smooth, his mind seemed 100 per cent. He was even having a joke with us.'