“I have been better but I realise it could have been a lot worse,” Purdon told the Herald from hospital on Thursday night.
“I was side on to her so she got me in the side, whereas if those kicks had landed on my back then the result could have been a lot worse.
“So I am a bit sore but there are people a lot worse off than me.”
Purdon said he suffered two fractures and will need a fair bit of time on the sidelines, but doctors hope he won’t need surgery.
He has been replaced on his organised drives for Friday night’s huge Harness Million meeting at Addington.
“Not needing surgery is a big plus and I am already up on crutches and doing some laps of the ward here [at the hospital],” Purdon said.
“It’s not too bad while I am using them to walk in a straight line but a bit hard when I have to turn corners.
“But I’d say I will be away from driving of any sort for a while.”
Purdon is regarded as one of the world’s greatest harness racing trainers and has set records, particularly when at his busiest last decade, that will likely never be matched in this part of the world.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
