Despite severe injuries in racetrack incident, 68-year-old jockey plans to return to riding

Jockey, 68, plans to return from severe injuries

OKLAHOMA CITY — Still successfully riding quarter horses at 68, Roy Brooks already has defied the odds. The veteran jockey sure doesn’t plan to let something like a broken pelvis suffered on the racetrack keep him from doing what he loves.

From his hospital bed on Monday, Brooks said he’s a quick healer and plans to return to racing, hopefully by the time Remington Park starts its 2011 quarter horse meet in March.

“I think I’m out for this year,” he quipped.

Brooks began racing quarter horses in 1967, long before Oklahoma legalized pari-mutuel racing. He spent years riding at tracks in New Mexico and was about ready to retire when Remington Park opened in 1988 in Oklahoma City, about 35 miles from his ranch in rural Blanchard. He said the chance to ride again in his home state rejuvenated his spirits.

He’s never won a riding title at Remington Park — although he’s consistently been near the top of the standings at Oklahoma’s largest track — but has won titles at Fair Meadows in Tulsa. He’s thought to be the second-oldest quarter horse jockey in North America, behind only 69-year-old Richard Rettele of Northville, Mich., who races only sparingly; Rettele’s first two mounts of the year were on Saturday at Indiana Downs.

Brooks, by contrast, has 14 wins in 124 starts in Remington Park’s current meet and has recorded 29 stakes wins at the track during his career.

“It’s not like he’s a token jockey that’s riding a couple of horses for his wife,” top quarter horse jockey G.R. Carter said. “He’s out there competing day to day and he will beat your ass if you let him.”

Brooks won the third race on Saturday night at Remington Park, and was aboard 2-year-old paint White Legged Cowboy for the fifth race. But the horse began acting “crazy” while waiting to be loaded into the starting gate, Brooks said.

The horse reared up and, as he has been trained, Brooks pushed off the horse to get away from it. But the horse lost its balance, began moving backward and fell over onto Brooks.

“I tried to get out of the way, but I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough,” Brooks said.

Jimmy Brooks, Roy’s son and a fellow jockey, was aboard another horse in the race and saw what happened.

“I just thought, ‘Oh, God.’ I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “From what I’d seen, my heart sunk. I just saw the horse on top of him and I jumped off mine and ran to him.”

His father knew immediately what had happened.

“As soon as the horse got up and we got to him, he said, ‘I broke my pelvis.’ Those were his first words,” Jimmy Brooks said.

The track’s medical staffers helped Brooks and he was taken to OU Medical Center, where he underwent surgery early Sunday for the broken pelvis and a torn urethra. The horse was fine and finished third in the race under replacement jockey Jesus Salazar.

Word of Brooks’ injury spread quickly through the quarter horse community. Brooks’ family called Rettele — who’s become a friend of Brooks through the years — and Rettele told an American Quarter Horse Association official visiting at Indiana Downs.

“Everybody knows Roy,” Rettele said.

Carter, a Remington Park regular, was riding Saturday night in California and said when he heard the news about Brooks, “it really sickened me. That son of a buck is my hero.”

Carter and Rettele expressed the concern among the quarter horse community that Brooks might not return to ride again.

“We don’t want to hear it because we’re old, but when you’re old, you don’t heal up as fast,” Rettele said.

Brooks is hearing none of that talk. Asked if his injuries will persuade him to retire, Brooks said, “I’ll decide that later on,” then added, “but probably not.” A few minutes later, his comeback attempt seemed even more certain.

“I’m going to ride in a race when I’m 70. That’s a year and a half away,” he said.

Upon hearing that, Carter — Brooks’ friend and rival — was relieved.

“He will, if he says he’s going to,” Carter said.

Jimmy Brooks said his father could be out of the hospital by the end of the week and will be able to use crutches instead of the wheelchair the younger Brooks used when he suffered a similar injury a few years ago.

“If there’s anybody who can come back from it, he can,” Jimmy Brooks said. And when he’s healed, “I’m sure he’ll pick and choose a little more what he gets on, but I don’t think he’ll quit.”