Having spent nearly four and half months on the sidelines in 2016, veteran hoop Nick Souquet is pretty happy to be back in the saddle.

“They get you pretty quick in this industry,” he said.

“It's a very results-driven game; if you're not getting results they don't want you.”

The former SDRA premiership winning jockey had been forced out of the game due to an abscess in his right buttock that required two rounds of surgery.

Now on the comeback trail, Souquet said it had been a long way back after first being taken to the emergency room in April.

“Late in April I rode three days in a row, coming home from Gundagai I felt a fairly literal pain in the backside,” he said.

“My wife took me down to emergency when we got back to Wodonga and it was straight into surgery from there.

“I had two weeks off after that, the I was able to get back for 12 rides and four winners before I was forced to have surgery again.

“I've been out of action for the last three weeks, my last surgery was on June 9.

“I'm hoping to get my clearance to start riding again on Monday, but if it tears again I'll have to have more surgery.”

Despite the setbacks, Souquet counts himself lucky.

He's even managed to eke a few positives out of the situation.

“I've always had a bit of trouble with weight, but because of all the hospital visits I've managed to shed a few kilos,” he said.

“I'm walking around at about 58 kilos. 

“That is a real positive, but I'm not quite ready yet.

“I still need to get down to 56 or so, so I've got a bit of work ahead of me.

“Unfortunately I haven't been able to do too much work on my lower body. 

“You can't do things like swimming without risking aggravating it.

“Hopefully I'll start a bit of trackwork on this week and go forward from there.

“I consider myself pretty lucky, I've still got some residual fitness, but I need to get mrace fitness back and there's only one way you can do that.

“You can run laps and do drills all you want, but the only way to truly get back is to race.”

Souquet's last winner was in May, aboard the Trevor Sutherland-trained Mr Somerville in Wagga, while his last ride was a month ago on the same track.

In 159 starts for the 2016-16 Southern District season, Souquet had ridden 14 winners and placed 41 times.

Greg Ryan is the runaway leader in the jockey's premiership, riding 109 winners in 557 starts.

The next best is Matthew Cahill with 75 winners.

Brett Cavanough, who is in the proccess of relocating his stable to scone, maintains a three win lead over Wagga trainer Trevor Sutherland in the latest SDRA trainers standings.

Just shy of a month remains on the racing calendar.

Racing returns to the Border in Corowa on Tuesday.