Neck injury threatens Mig's career: 6/2-Announces retirement..

[iamthelurker]

Injury threatens Migliore's career
By David Grening
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - Jockey Richard Migliore's riding career could be in jeopardy after it was discovered last week that he refractured the vertebrae in his neck. Migliore will undergo surgery at a Manhattan hospital next week.

It is believed Migliore suffered the fracture when he was thrown from a horse Jan. 23 at Aqueduct, but the injury was not diagnosed until Migliore met with a neurologist in Manhattan last Monday. Migliore first suffered a broken neck in a spill at Belmont Park in 1988.

"Basically, I've been riding the last two months with a broken neck," Migliore said.

Migliore said four vertebrae in his neck - the C-3 C-4, C-5, and C-6 - will need to be fused together. It is unclear how long Migliore will be out of action or whether he will be able to ride again. Dr. Andrew Hecht will perform the surgery at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Manhattan.

On Friday, Migliore said he wanted to get healthy first before confronting the issue of whether he would ride again.

"The possibility does exist," Migliore said when asked whether he may have ridden his last race. "But I don't want to be too premature one way or the other. I want to know I can go forward with my life in a productive manner before making any hard and fast decisions.

"I'm confronting too many things right now, that the possibility I've ridden my last race is a little too emotional for me to think about," he said. "I get choked up."

Migliore, who turned 46 last month, has won 4,450 races, and his horses have earned more than $160 million. He was the leading rider on the New York Racing Association circuit as an apprentice in 1981 and as a journeyman in 1985. He has won 10 riding titles at Aqueduct.

"I want to ride without a shadow of a doubt, if the doctors allow me to go forward," Migliore said.

Migliore was diagnosed with a concussion when he was thrown from Honest Wildcat during the stretch run of a race over the inner track Jan. 23. He returned two weeks later and had ridden regularly since then. But in the last few weeks, Migliore had been riding in pain, even March 27, when he won four races from five mounts.

Migliore said he has ridden in pain throughout his career, but "honestly, I've never been in this much pain all my life. The day I won four I couldn't drive to and from the track."


Riding for two months with a broken neck. He is the toughest jockey and possibly the toughest man I have ever seen. I hope this is not the end of his career but if it is, it will be a travesty if he is not in the Hall of Fame.