I was thinking more about the pain than the race I was going to ride. It was very humbling. I think he really realized who his friends are. He tapped his massive financial resources to help, flying his friend to specialists in New York and flying other doctors in from Europe. The prince offered to pay for it.
All jockeys think they understand the training life, and they're all wrong.
And Gary's never late. The bigger culture shock came on race day. Jockeys rarely live and die with races the way trainers do because there's always another one to ride. I wasn't able to get my fix training horses. He took a lot of it.