Whenever injured jockey Paul Goode starts to feel sorry for himself, he hops in his wheelchair and embarks on a short ride.
Laying a few metres from him in Sydney's Prince of Wales hospital is Nicole. Nicole, 19, is a quadriplegic. She was involved in a four-wheel-drive accident eight months ago.
She has been bed and wheelchair-restricted ever since. She is unlikely to walk again.
Goode, 31, is a T4 complete paraplegic. From his nipple line down, he has no feeling.
Goode, a former Canberra-based jockey, was involved in a race fall at Queanbeyan on June29. He, too, has been bed and wheelchair bound ever since.
Since arriving at the hospital four months ago, Goode has formed a solid bond with his new friend Nicole. She's his daily inspiration to motivate him to achieve his goals.
Those goals are lofty. Goode wants to be walking again in 12 months time.
He wants to be riding horses again in five years. How close the determined hoop gets to reaching those goals remains to be seen.
But as long as he's got Nicole close by, he'll give it a heck of a shake.
''For the first couple of weeks in here I thought my life had ended but I now realise it hasn't and that it isn't that bad for me,'' Goode told The Canberra Times.
''The first day I saw Nicole, my heart sunk. She's only 19.
''Seeing her, I just laid there in my bed and told myself to get off my arse and know this is it, that if I don't get up I'm just going to drown in my own sorrow.
''Nicole hadn't lived her life and she's not going to live her life. That's just so sad.''
Today is Cox Plate Day, a day where the racing spotlight shines brightly on Moonee Valley in Melbourne for the running of Australasia's premier weight-for-age event.
Not everyone will be enjoying Cox Plate day as they may have hoped.
When the 14 jockeys engaged in today's $3million feature mount their horses at about 4.20pm, they will again be putting their lives in danger for the spectacle of others.
The dangers of being a jockey are highlighted year in year out with race falls.
This year, the perils have hit close to home. Goode, who rode for Canberra trainer Barbara Joseph when he first came to Australia from England in late 2002, is continuing his recovery from his Queanbeyan fall.
And Canberra apprentice jockey Taylor Lovelock-Wiggins is recovering from a fall at Gundagai earlier this month that left him with three fractures in his skull, a broken eye socket, a broken cheekbone, two fractures to his jaw and a small blood clot near his brain.
Both hoops are lucky to be alive. While their individual situations could have been much worse, both feel as if they've come out winners.
One may assume Goode's fall would change his life forever.
Goode thinks otherwise. If his confidence and enthusiasm count for anything, there's no doubt he'll beat this setback and one day return to the saddle.
''I'm flying,'' Goode said. ''Every challenge they've put to me I've completed. The physios and rehab people just keep saying, 'Is there anything you won't be able to complete'?
''I've never let it get me down, I've just got on with life as best I can.
''At the end of the day, I can do anything anyone else can do. I cruise around the hospital in my wheelchair, do wheelies, jump off gutters, all the things I probably shouldn't be doing.''
Goode can see the positives, as murky as they may be to most at this stage of his rehabilitation.
Yes, he suffered horrific injuries while doing his job. But in a strange way, he's glad he suffered the injuries the way he did.
''I would have been more devastated if I got hit by a bus or something and ended up like this,'' he said. ''There's nothing wrong with me. I'm the same Paul Goode. Mentally I'm all there, I just can't feel my entire body.''
Lovelock-Wiggins, comparatively speaking, has barely broken a fingernail. He had a plate and four screws inserted into his eye socket eight days ago and had his finger rebroken, straightened and placed in a splint.
He'll be back on a horse in a couple of months. At 16 years of age, he's got it all ahead of him in the riding ranks.
His fall on October9 was his second in 12 months of being an apprentice, an alarming statistic.
''I was lucky both times. The first fall I was able to ride the rest of the program and this latest one has put me on my backside for a few weeks but a lot of people have come off a lot worse than a few fractures here and there,'' Lovelock-Wiggins said.
''I've been up and about. Hey, I walked out of hospital at 3pm the same day as I had my surgery, so I'll be fine.
''It is dangerous at times being a jockey, we all know that, but this won't set me back. It won't stop me from getting back on a horse and going again.''
Lovelock-Wiggins should be due to get back in the saddle about the same time as fellow sidelined hoop Jim Cassidy.
Cassidy has missed the Spring Carnival after he severely sliced two of his fingers in a gardening accident at his Sydney home last month.
It's been an expensive accident for the larrikin jockey.
Among others throughout the carnival, Cassidy would have partnered Roman Emperor in last weekend's Caulfield Cup, which finished second. He also would have been riding Vision And Power in today's Cox Plate.
Not one to dwell on his absence Cassidy, 46, understands he is sidelined due to a freak accident.
But like Lovelock-Wiggins, it won't hinder his desire to get back on a neddy when he's fit again.
''I'm filthy I'm missing the carnival, let alone from the fact I'm out because of a garden incident, but even if it was because of a fall it wouldn't stop me,'' Cassidy said.
''If you're worried about that, you give it away. No rider thinks like that. We all love doing what we do but sometimes things happen you can't control.''
What Cassidy, Lovelock-Wiggins and Goode can control is their desire to fight back. It's raging within all three injured jockeys.
Of the three, the greatest challenges lay ahead for Goode.
Goode remains confident he can prove people wrong and achieve the unachievable.
And nobody could begrudge him of that.