BEN CURTIS<\/strong> knows.<\/p>\n\u201cYou have to go out there with the mentality you\u2019re unbreakable,\u201d said Curtis, 36. who, barring any personal calamity, should be Colonial Downs\u2019 leading rider for the second straight year. \u201c\u2026 but that day shook the room up a bit. You could hear a pin drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing is, he\u2019s on the mend. But, that day, everyone was taken aback \u2026 and we made the right decision to cancel the rest of the card. I don\u2019t think anyone was in the state of mind to ride again competitively.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, what happened to Conner was yet another reminder to Curtis and friends they are mortal after all. \u201cIt brings reality a little bit closer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur job is to pick ourselves up and do it again the day after \u2026 which is what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curtis undoubtedly has lost count how many times that mentality has come into play since he began riding seriously 20 years ago. In fact, he has been the object of similar concerns himself more often than he can (or cares to) remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve been hurt badly a lot of times,\u00a0 when I\u2019ve been knocked on the ground \u2026 unconscious \u2026\u00a0 and been out a long time \u2026 and you wake up in a hospital and don\u2019t know what happened \u2026 it\u2019s a scary feeling \u2026 It\u2019s never a good place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unless he changes his mind (and it certainly seems doubtful at this point in his young life), Conner has gone Thoroughbred racing for the last time. The risk no longer is worth the reward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have zero desire to ride a racehorse again,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve been wanting to quit for years \u2026 and this gives me a good reason now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2014, Conner has won 1,271 of 7,997 starts for more than $29 million in prize money \u2026 based primarily in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His biggest (by far) claim to fame came June 3 at Penn National when he directed 83\/1 shot \u2013 yes, EIGHTY THREE TO ONE \u2013 Wow Whatta Summer<\/strong> to victory in the Gr. II $400,000 Penn Mile.<\/p>\n\u201cThe talk of the racing world,\u201d someone wrote. \u201cThe soft-spoken jockey was born to the business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHorsemanship in his blood,\u201d said a friend of the family.<\/p>\n
So much for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just got to focus on getting healthy,\u201d Conner said, \u201cand figure out what I want to do next with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that would be? \u201cI really have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point he\u2019s just happy to have a life. That\u2019s the important thing.<\/p>\n
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udcdd Jerry Lindquist wrote for Richmond newspapers for more than 50 years, and is in the Virginia Sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-345117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115029796992546070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}