Martin encounters delays in rehab

Houston, TX - Oct. 20, 2011 - This was to have been their Christmas "away."

Hall of Fame quarter horse jockey Jacky Martin and his wife/agent Tracey, a former jockey, had purchased a creekside log cabin outside Ruidoso, N.M.

"We're usually at a track during the holidays," Tracey Martin said. "We hadn't told people, but this year we made an escape plan. We were going to be home for Christmas."

They instead might still be at TIRR Memorial Hermann, where Jacky Martin, 56, lies with a broken neck.

A Sept. 2 fall at the finish of a Ruidoso Downs race inflicted three cervical cracks and caused paralysis from the neck down.

Difficult times

"He still needs a respirator to breathe," she said. "It's his lifeline; he can't get by without it.

"When he tries to talk, it wears him out. Sometimes he has to whisper. When he doesn't have the strength to whisper, you have to read his lips."

From time to time, Jacky tells his wife his chest feels as though it's being crushed. His condition has delayed some rehabilitation, the purpose of his transfer here from an El Paso hospital.

"His medical team spends lots of time just dealing with today and the next day," Tracey said. "He was comfortable on Oct. 8. We watched a football game on his room TV. That evening, and for more than a week later, some form or fashion of nausea was a constant problem."

Jacky's Houston trips had always been to ride in Sam Houston Race Park's major races. But his memory-making track was Ruidoso Downs, where he won the All-American Futurity seven times from 1976 to 2000.

Tracey said her husband was fearless in every ride, including the fateful one.

"In this business, you have to be fearless," she said. "When you're not, it's time to quit. If you climb on a horse's back and experience fear, you're not only putting yourself at risk, you're endangering all the other riders.

"You have to acknowledge to yourself that danger is part of riding. But you can't let that acknowledgment sit in the front of your consciousness. If it stays there, you're in trouble. You have to push it to the back of your mind and keep it there.

"Riders who are trying to avoid danger need to get off the track."

Life after racing

Though Tracey thinks her husband would have always loved speeding down a track, the pair had discussed a finish line for his career.

"We were looking at a four- or five-year plan," she said. "It started with rat-holing our nickels. Jacky isn't someone who would put lots of things on his bucket list. At the same time, we didn't want him working six and seven days forever. We didn't want him to die on a racetrack. We wanted to have a life after racing.

"There's something many people don't know about Jacky. Not many jockeys pay attention to grooms. Jacky always did. He not only knew the grooms, he knew about their children and their pets. He was interested in them because that's the kind of person he is. He had time for everybody."

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