Winning owner makes day even more special for disabled jockeys
Today met yesterday and a worthy cause benefited Saturday.
Gio Ponti won the Arlington Million and owner Shane Ryan donated 5 percent ($29,400) of the winning purse to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.
"They are very brave men," Ryan said of riders.
Twenty-three of those brave men were in the vicinity of Arlington Heights the past few days to raise money for the Jockeys Fund.
We're talking about riders such as Ron Turcotte, Pat Day, Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay Jr., Earlie Fires, Gary Stevens and Jerry Bailey.
Among the 23 in attendance were Triple Crown winners, Arlington Million winners, Breeders Cup winners and an astounding 20 members of the sport's Hall of Fame.
Most of all they are little giants who survived this beautiful yet dangerous sport.
Day described a race this way: "You get 8, 10, 12, 14 horses running at 40 miles per hour and you couldn't get a cigarette paper between them."
All I could wonder as these world-class athletes sat at tables and signed autographs was, well, how many combined broken bones did they endure during their careers?
Hundreds? Thousands? Too many to count or comprehend?
Few think of horse racing's risks until a pileup occurs just out of the gate or on one of the turns or down the stretch.
"We accept the risk," Day said, "and we love what we're doing."
Rene Douglas accepted the risks. Today he's in a rehabilitation facility trying to regain movement in his limbs after a May 23 racing mishap at Arlington Park.
"In Rene's case we're just thankful it didn't kill him," Day said. "Now we're hopeful he'll regain his mobility."
Incidents like Douglas' are why these great jockeys were at Arlington for the Million: To raise money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, which was formed in 2006.
At last count, 60 riders are classified as permanently disabled. Douglas isn't among them because hope remains that he'll recover.
The retired jockeys who participated the past few days are wrinkled now. What's left of their hair is punctuated by gray. Many carry more weight than when they were riding.
A few like Turcotte are in wheelchairs. A racing crash turned him into a paraplegic five years after he rode legendary Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973.
But the sparkle in their eyes made it seem that at least for a day they were younger now as fans formed long lines to get signatures and photographs.
"To be in the room with these other riders - it's incredible," Day said.
The memories these guys must have swapped could fill horse racing history books. Gio Ponti rider Ramon A. Dominguez will have a whopper to tell them all some day.
The retirees hope to reunite at more big races, tell more stories and raise more money for needy colleagues.
Day said that when a rider like Douglas goes down, "It breaks our hearts."
Glad to say, all the jockeys competing in the International Festival of Racing remained healthy enough to race another day.
That fact, plus a current winning owner, plus former champion jockeys added up to a bright and shiny Million afternoon at Arlington Park.
mimrem@dailyherald.com