DEL MAR : Majority of Riders No Strangers to Comebacks After Major Injuries

Barely half an hour after the dust had settled on Chris McCarron’s comeback Thursday, Laffit Pincay took a nose-dive at the start of the sixth race.

For maybe 10 seconds, Pincay lay in a ball, an automatic reaction for riders whenever they fall. Then, the 43-year-old Hall of Famer got slowly to his feet and walked with help to a waiting ambulance. He was OK--this time.

Earlier in the day, Pincay and several of his colleagues had talked about the perils of their job. Specifically, they were asked to recall comebacks from injuries, how they felt mentally and physically when they returned to the saddle after a significant layoff.

Pincay, who broke ribs and suffered internal injuries in a spill here two years ago, said that the key to coming back strong was to deal with the pain.

“The first time I broke my collarbone, it hurt so bad I was afraid to move,” Pincay said. “Every little twinge scared me.

“Because of that, it took me two months to get back when it should have only been about a month. You can’t let it bother you.”

One never has to look far to find evidence of the dangers of race riding. A sweep with a metal detector around the cubicles in the Del Mar jockeys’ room would red-line the needle. Besides the long pins holding McCarron’s left thigh and right forearm together, several other riders are toting serious iron.

Rafael Meza smashed his right hand in a spill last February at Santa Anita. When he learned the extent of the damage, his first words to his doctor were: “Will I be able to use it again?”

“That’s the worst thing in the world,” said Meza, who has only recently picked up the momentum lost to his injury. “You wonder just how bad it’s going to be.”

Meza’s hand healed, with the help of two screws. He was back in action about two months after his spill. But he is far from 100%.

“There’s been a lot of calcification around the screws and they’ve shifted,” said Meza, indicating an obvious bump on the back of his hand between the thumb and index finger.

“It’s tender to touch, and I have to ice it all the time,” he added. “I can’t really use it for much of anything--except riding. That’s the only thing that doesn’t bother me.”

Meza said he will have the screws removed the day after the Del Mar meeting ends in mid-September.

Soon after that, Frank Olivares will undergo minor surgery to have screws taken out of his right ankle.

Olivares, 40, suffered the worst injury of his career at the Fairplex Park meeting in September 1989 when he went down on the clubhouse turn. His right leg was broken below the knee, the ankle was broken in two places and the ligaments were badly torn.

“You can see a hole in one of the bones where they tried using a screw but it wouldn’t take,” Olivares said.

“The day I came back it felt great, though,” he added. “I was surprised. It was like I was never away. But you prepare yourself mentally for that. It’s part of the job.”

Gary Stevens, who has had three major comebacks in the last five years, said that the biggest challenge to a comeback was self-control.

“You take for granted that you’re ready to go physically,” he said. “But the adrenaline is flowing pretty good when you ride that first day, and that’s something you don’t really need. You have to be in control out there.”

Eddie Delahoussaye thought his career could have ended seven years ago at Del Mar when he was kicked in the walking ring before a race. He suffered a broken hip and extensive muscle damage to the right side of his abdomen.

“I was worried if I was going to be the same rider again,” said Delahoussaye, who had won consecutive Kentucky Derbies at the time.

“Then, after I convinced myself I could ride, I had to worry if I would be accepted. Even when your doing good, if you’re away, hurt or whatever, you have to prove yourself all over again. Especially here in California. There’s plenty of talented riders that people will use in a second if they have any doubts in you at all.”

Darrel McHargue, former national champion and now a racing official, echoed Delahoussaye’s pragmatic sentiments. McHargue suggested that McCarron needed to make a smart, successful return to retain his healthy share of the top mounts in rich races.

“Timing is very important,” McHargue said. “It’s up to McCarron’s agent to have winning mounts waiting for him now that he’s back. He’s got to get that momentum back right away.”

Nothing, however, is more important than desire, said Alex Solis, who spoiled McCarron’s comeback by winning the fifth. Desire to heal quickly and regain a winning rhythm, no matter how serious the injury, he advised.

“It makes no difference how bad you are hurt,” Solis said. “It’s how strong you are right here.”

Solis pounded his chest, right over his heart, grabbed his helmet and went out to ride the sixth.

Horse Racing Notes

Alex Solis won the feature race aboard the 34-1 surprise, Justoneofthegirls, for trainer Lewis Cenicola. . . . Gary Jones said that San Diego Handicap winner Quiet American will leave for New York Wednesday to run in the Woodward Stakes against Criminal Type on Sept. 15.