Thursday, March 28, 2024

Husbands ‘not calling it quits yet’

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PATRICK HUSBANDS MAY BE DOWN, but he’s definitely not out.
It may be another three to four months before he mounts another horse, but Barbados’ top jockey hasn’t let that damper his spirits one bit.
Husbands fractured his right tibia in a fall at Woodbine on May 20, after his mount, A Tough Buck, collapsed just after passing the finish line, trapping the seven time Sovereign Award winner underneath.
“That day actually started out pretty good because the first horse that I rode actually won,” a smiling Husbands told NATION SPORT shortly after arriving at the Grantley Adams International Airport yesterday, the first day of a month-long vacation.
“Unfortunately the second horse that I rode suffered a heat stroke by the wire and went right down with me and I landed and broke both above my ankle and below my knee,” added the three-time Sandy Lane Gold Cup winner, who was in a wheelchair.
The accident couldn’t have come at a worse time – two days before his 40th birthday.
“That was really one on the hardest things about my injury . . . ,” he said. “Having invited all of my friends to come and celebrate with me, and knowing that some of them had flown in from all over the world to celebrate what was a very special occasion for me….and then to get injured, it was hard.”
However, Husbands hasn’t allowed the incident to get him down, and he is eagerly looking forward to returning to the race track. Even at the age of 40, and with a lengthy wait on the sidelines, the thought of retirement has never crossed his mind. Not even once.
“I don’t think anyone in the world can love a sport and love their job like me,” he said. “Everybody keeps asking me the same question, ‘When am I going to retire?’, ‘When am I going to call it quits?’. But the bottom line is that I have to wake up one morning and say ‘you know what, I’ve had enough of this’.
“I can’t say that I’m going to retire the 16th or the 18th. I love riding horses and it’s all that I know. It’s my passion.”

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