Riding into Retirement

Riding into Retirement

Pat Day holds the record as horse racing's all-time leading money-earner, with purse earnings totaling nearly $298 million. But the retired jockey modestly uses the word "we," not "I," in discussing his extraordinary 8,803 victories and a remarkable career spanning 32 years.

"Those victories didn't just come because of me," Day explains, sitting in the kitchen of his home in Louisville, Ky. "Anybody who had anything to do with that horse played an integral role. To suggest that I was singularly responsible for any of those victories is a complete fallacy. You're only as strong as the weakest link."

Day, 52, who retired from racing last August to become national spokesman for the Race Track Chaplaincy of America, is cited by The Courier-Journal in Louisville as the fourth-best rider of all time. He won the Kentucky Derby, riding Lil E. Tee, in 1992, as well as the Preakness Stakes five times and Belmont Stakes three times. He rode 12 winners in the Breeders' Cup and won the Eclipse Award, given to the year's outstanding jockey, four times. The most dominant rider in the history of Churchill Downs, Day also set a North American record at Arlington Park in 1989 when he won eight of nine races in a single day.

But people who know him well insist he's a champion out of the saddle, too. "As great as Pat Day was as a jockey, he is even better as a person," says sports writer Rick Bozich, who covered Day for many years. "He took everybody on a great ride, and very little of it was on the race track."

Around Churchill Downs in Louisville, Day is known as a man who never spoke badly of a rider who beat him at the wire, and who always finished a win by thanking the trainer, the owner and God.

His faith has been the most important aspect of his life since 1984, when Day committed his life to Jesus Christ in overcoming drug and alcohol problems. Since that time, he has worked unofficially with the Race Track Chaplaincy Association, which addresses the spiritual and social needs of racetrack workers, by giving speeches, organizing tours and staging auctions to raise money to build racetrack chapels, among other endeavors. His more recent role as association spokesman, he glowingly notes, allows him to travel "without the distraction of a full-time career," visiting racetrack chaplains and helping the ministry expand fund-raising efforts and boost awareness of addictive racetrack gambling.

Day, who rode 40,298 horses during his career, and whose trophy room rivals that of award-winning rock stars, was known for close finishes and an uncanny ability to communicate with his mount. "In a sense, the horse and rider become one in spirit," he explains.

The decision to retire from the sport didn't come easily. But early last year, the joy of competing and winning had started to fade for the native of Brush, Colo. (pop. 5,117). In March 2005, he underwent hip surgery for a torn cartilage and chose to stay home with his wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Irene, during her last year of high school. Though he returned to racing a few months later, he felt God had another plan for him—and that was to get out of the saddle for good. Then one day, out of the blue, he felt the need to retire. "All of a sudden, my mouth opened and almost involuntarily I said, 'It's time, isn't it?' And it was like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders."

Day is regarded as a hero in his adopted hometown of Louisville, but the acclaimed jockey insists he doesn't feel like one as he focuses more on his future than on his decorated past.

"I feel like an incredibly blessed individual," he says. "I've hardly worked a day in my life, since I always called racing my hobby. I really believe the remainder of my days will be decidedly more rewarding and fulfilling than the 32 previous years of my incredibly successful racing career."

Alanna Nash, a contributor to American Profile, lives in Louisville, Ky.

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