Dream Is Still Alive for Jockey, Victim of Terrifying Accident

After severely burning more than half his body in a jockey-room accident two years ago, all Randy Romero wanted to do was die.

“I cried and cried, I was so depressed,” he said. “I was in so much pain. And they told me I’d never ride again.”

Romero refused to believe it.

And now within reach is the goal he held since he started racing in the Louisiana countryside at age 9. Romero is fewer than 20 victories behind Chris Antley, an East Coast rider, in the race for the nation’s racing championship.

Romero was in the midst of an outstanding spring meet when he crawled inside a weight-reducing box in the jockey’s room at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. The box was heated by rows of light bulbs. One of them apparently ignited the alcohol on Romero’s body, setting his upper torso on fire.

He suffered the next two months, undergoing excruciating therapy to repair the second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of his body. Six months later he was back on a horse. He won his very first race.

“After I rode that first horse I knew I could ride again,” Romero said at the jockey’s recreation room at Keeneland Race Course. “I knew there was nothing that was going to stop me. I was just too young to quit.”

But Romero’s bad luck had not yet run its course. He had returned too soon and a month later he was again undergoing skin grafts.

After another six-month layoff, Romero was back in the saddle and his dream again seemed attainable. But misfortune struck in the winter of 1984. This time in the form of a shattered femur when a 2-year-old horse crashed through the outside fence at Delta Downs.

It was the 18th operation for the 27-year-old from Erath, La. In January, after his 1985 season is over, he will undergo his 19th operation to remove a steel rod from his injured leg.

“I had all these accidents, but burns is the most painful thing you’ll ever have,” said Romero, who was treated at a burn center in Galveston, Texas. “Every night I’d lay there listening to all those people screaming. There were people in the hospital burned not as bad as I, and they died.”

But Romero never let go of the dream.

“God helped me get through,” said Romero, fingering a large gold cross on his burn-scarred chest. “And I’m not a quitter. I was taught to never give up, to always do your best.”

Romero learned such spirit on his father’s hog-turned-thoroughbred farm of 83 acres in Louisiana. He began riding as soon as he could get on top of a horse. In high school, he would be driven two hours to Delta Downs to race at night. As soon as he graduated he began racing the Midwest circuit.

Romero is confident, almost cocky, that he will win the championship this year, and he hopes for an Eclipse Award as well. If he is behind come late November, he plans to race during the day at Louisiana Fairgrounds and fly across the state to race at night at Delta Downs.

“As long as he (Antley) doesn’t get any further away from me than he is right now, I’ve got it,” Romero said. “I’ve got that much confidence.

“Once I reach that goal, I’ll set another. I’m going to ride as long as I can.”

With the riding championship, Romero’s mounts would improve. Like every rider there are always thoughts of the Triple Crown races.

“That’s everybody’s dream,” said Romero, laughing. “But no. I’ll just get this one done and then think about another one later.”