HORSE RACING : Migliore’s Mettle in the Saddle Proven in Return

The first thing Richard Migliore remembers after the accident was waking up in an ambulance, disoriented, with blood seeping into his eyes. He was asking himself, Who am I? Where am I? Then he saw that he was wearing silks and he was able to reason, “All right, I’m a jockey; I must have been in a fall,” before he lost consciousness again.

He remembers fragments too of what the doctor told him at Long Island Jewish Hospital: “By law I have to tell you this. ... A very risky operation ... very likely to be a quadriplegic.” Even as the doctor spoke, Migliore could feel his limbs going numb.

The events that began on Memorial Day 1988 have consumed much of Migliore’s life ever since. But while all medical probabilities had suggested that he would be reflecting upon this personal tragedy from a wheelchair, he was talking about it this week in the jockeys’ room at Gulfstream Park, where he is riding this winter. His presence here is due in part to divine providence, in part to Migliore’s indomitable spirit.

On the day he climbed aboard a filly named Madame Alydar at Belmont Park, Migliore was solidly established as one of the best riders in New York. He had been the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice and the top race-winning rider in New York in 1981; he led that tough circuit in victories again in 1985. He was young, well-liked, well-respected; his future couldn’t have been brighter.

Then a filly named Imanair fell in front of Madame Alydar on the Belmont turf course. Migliore’s mount started to leap over the prone animal, but as she did, Imanair bounded to her feet, and Madame Alydar crashed into her. Migliore was hurtled into the air -- and hit the ground head-first. The impact splintered his fifth cervical vertebra.

When doctors examined him, they were surprised that Migliore wasn’t paralyzed already. They inserted bolts in his head and wrapped him in tape like a mummy to immobilize him while they straightened his neck. Then they operated in an effort to repair the damage. After an 8 1/2-hour procedure, they told Migliore that he wouldn’t be paralyzed. But Migliore’s chances of returning to his old career would depend on how much mobility he had lost, and on his own efforts to rehabilitate.

Migliore couldn’t wait to get started. Within a week he was getting up at 6 a.m. to move around the hospital with his walker. He exercised his hands to strengthen his grip. He soon advanced to swimming, bicycling and workouts with light weights.

“I just didn’t think my career could end like this -- it wasn’t time,” Migliore said. “I never really doubted that I could come back, and every time I made some progress it spurred me on. But there were setbacks -- there were nights I cried because I knew the game was passing me by. My wife was so confident and supportive too; she’d never let on how worried she was.”

There were times when Carmela Migliore would watch Richard try to lift a glass to his lips and fail to execute that basic act of coordination. She would excuse herself to the bathroom, where she would sob and shake out of worry about her husband’s chances of recovery.

Migliore was so eager to get back to the sport he loved that within a couple of months he was visiting Belmont Park, hanging around the press box. Anyone who saw him then had to harbor doubts about his comeback chances too. He was pale and weak, and speaking with a pitiful, squeaky little voice; surgeons had had to remove his voice box, and then replace it, to repair his veterbra.

And yet by August Migliore was climbing on the back of a pony in Saratoga, just to get the feel of it again. In the autumn he was exercising horses in earnest. And on Nov. 23 -- less than six months after the accident -- Migliore was riding again.

Even then, his comeback wasn’t easy. While everybody in the racetrack community was rooting for him, trainers were wary of riding him. “I know you can’t expect anything in this game,” Migliore said. “I thought trainers would be more supportive. Some people disappointed me, to be frank.”

People in the horse business are pragmatists, and they wanted to see if the kid could still ride. Migliore showed them. While some people still question whether he is riding as well as he did before the spill, Migliore was the fourth-winningest rider in New York during 1989. He wanted to take an aggressive shot at the No. 1 spot this year, but the cold winter weather was causing stiffness and discomfort in his neck, so he abandoned the goal and chose instead to spend this winter at Gulfstream.

Outwardly, Migliore displays no signs of the ordeal he has been through. The changes, he said, have been inside him. “When I was trying to come back, I promised myself that I’d never take anything for granted again,” he said. “Every time I get on a horse I want to ride like it was the most important race in the world. And whenever I win, I’ll take a little extra time just to savor it, and enjoy it.”