Fuchs said to himself as he buoyantly bounced through the paddock after the race. From the big wheels in the boxes to the little people who punch the clock, Day touched 'em all. Ain't no act at all. He's come a long way. The actual work of race riding is so perilous that the American Medical Association has labeled thoroughbred jockey the most hazardous job in America.
Day avoids the spills, professionally and personally.
He stands as a graceful, gleaming exemplar to the addicted. Few people anywhere have so thoroughly and successfully rehabbed their lives. Since his cold-turkey moment, which dovetailed with a conversion to Christianity in a Miami hotel room in January 1984, Day has slipped from sobriety once. After the 1985 Kentucky Derby he had half a beer in the jockeys' quarters. For the next two days.