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Sellers Riding With Heart Second Time Around
A featured article and picture from Fair Grounds Race Course written by Gary McMillen
He was jogging the rookie around the Fair Grounds clubhouse turn when another horse galloped by and spooked Sellers' mount. Sellers fell, landed on his feet and grabbed the reins. As the frightened horse tried to run off, Sellers held on to the reins, trying to control and protect the horse. It was a mistake that lasted a fraction of a second. The horse pulled Sellers underneath and, like a crack-back block in football, stepped down on the side of his knee. Sellers got up. He had fallen many times before in his 20-year career. No big deal. Bumps and bruises. You go down, get up and dust yourself off.
Not this time. Sellers took a step and fell to the ground.
"I looked down and saw my kneecap slide off the bone," Sellers remembered. "My kneecap went one way and my leg went the other. It was the most painful thing I ever experienced in my life."
Riding off in the track ambulance, Sellers knew that he had a serious injury. "In my gut I knew I had lost the most important part of my physical ability to ride," he said. "It scared me. I kept thinking that my career might be over."
Broken collarbones, sprained wrists and cracked ribs are one thing but to a jockey a torn up knee can signal the end of a career. Except for the brief time when the horse is walking, a jockey's knees are always bending and flexing. "Watch it in slow motion," Sellers said. "The knee is like a shock absorber every time the horse pounds the ground."
After the accident, Sellers underwent surgery to repair a severely torn anterior cruciate ligament. After the surgery he spent nine weeks in bed, the knee immobilized in traction. There was constant swelling and pain. And there was something much worse - depression.
"I got to where I didn't want to do nothing," Sellers said. "I didn't want to see anybody. It was a shock not to know where my life was going. I missed the routine of getting up every morning at 5:30 and going to the track. I missed galloping horses and going to the jock's room. I missed getting in the hot box and taking a nap before the races. That was my home away from home."
The phone stopped ringing. All Sellers had was family and a few friends who stayed in touch. Others were afraid to call.
"I wasn't Shane Sellers anymore," he said. "I didn't know who I was. I was 35 years old and it was over."
Every comeback has its price and Sellers paid with raw determination. Down and dirty. Failure wasn't an option. He pushed himself beyond the doctor's prescribed regimen.
"I would do rehab at the facility and then go home and do more," Sellers said. "If I was going to cheat, it wasn't going to be on the low end."
Many race trackers speculated that Sellers would never ride again but the jockey who has won over $100 million in purses and two Breeders' Cup races is in exceptional form.
He rides in pain and accepts the fact that it is not going to get any better. "I had a choice - to retire or ride in pain," he said.
The timing is not where he wants it to be. The stick doesn't get over to the other hand as fast as he wants. After losing 17 pounds in nine days before his comeback, Sellers is not "racing fit" in his estimation but everyday it gets better. He feels the progress and is encouraged. And he is winning races.
"I always rode on instinct and reaction," said Sellers, sitting on a bench outside the jock's room. "I never tried to think out there. When I tried to think or make a plan is when I made mistakes. You ride thousands of races and in each one you have just a split second to make a decision. There's no time to really think about what you are going to do."
The determination part has been demonstrated, and now Sellers is waiting for another opportunity. Another Pulpit, another Countess Diana, another Skip Away. But a different person is waiting.
"I promised myself that if I ever got back to the level of riding the top horses that this time around I was going to have fun," Sellers said. "The reason that I didn't enjoy winning before was that I was always trying to get somewhere. I was so driven and put so much pressure on myself to get to the top that I did not enjoy it. I always had to win one more. I didn't realize that about myself until it was over, until it was gone." |
