Shoemaker Is Back to Barn at Santa Anita : Horse racing: Trainer is on hand for beginning of Oak Tree meeting today. He denies that drinking caused car crash.

Bill Shoemaker, covering a lot of ground these days for someone in his condition, said Tuesday that he wasn’t drunk when he lost control of his car about six months ago, resulting in an accident that left him a quadriplegic.

Restricted to a wheelchair, Shoemaker returned home from a Colorado hospital Friday, was a surprise guest at jockey Eddie Delahoussaye’s 40th birthday party Saturday and has been back at his specially remodeled Santa Anita barn since Sunday, determined to resume what had been a promising training career before the April 8 accident.

That night, Shoemaker left Don Pierce, another jockey turned trainer, after they had played golf, and drove his car off a steep embankment in San Dimas. Shoemaker suffered a spinal-cord injury in the accident and remains paralyzed from the chest down.

An investigator for the California Highway Patrol smelled alcohol at the scene of the accident, and a blood test showed that Shoemaker had an alcohol level of 0.13%, which is 0.05% above the legal limit. At the time, the 4-foot-11 Shoemaker probably weighed about 95 pounds, as he did for most of his career. A misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated has been dropped.

Shoemaker, 60, has said that he was reaching for the car phone when he lost control of the vehicle. “It was my own fault,” he said during a news conference at Santa Anita Tuesday. “Everybody said I was drunk, but I wasn’t. I had two beers (at the golf course) and then I left.”

Commenting about the blood test, Shoemaker said: “I had been treated with some alcohol-based drugs by the time I was tested.”

The blood test was taken at Glendora Community Hospital, where Shoemaker was taken after the accident.

Authorities disputed Shoemaker’s claim Tuesday, citing a California Highway Patrol investigator’s report of the accident. The report said Shoemaker was given an antibiotic, Ancef; a muscle relaxant, Ancetine; a sedative, Pentothal; Dopamine solution, potassium and one unit of blood during emergency treatment. None of those substances are alcohol-based, according to the Physician’s Desk Reference.

A chemist who analyzed the blood sample told a CHP investigator that none of the drugs administered affected the blood-alcohol level, the report stated.

“Based on (that) we felt that he was under the influence, that the 0.13% he had in the system (was) consumed elsewhere prior to driving,” said Joe Flores, a CHP spokesman.

Shoemaker’s wife, Cindy, said at the news conference that Pierce and Shoemaker, who played golf together often, would sometimes take turns driving each other home.

“That way,” she said, “they had a good excuse to go back for the other car the next day, and play again.”

Shoemaker probably weighs more than 100 pounds for the first time in his life. “My neck is swollen,” he said. “It’s about a (size) 16 1/2, and it was 14 when I went there (to Colorado for treatment). All they do is stuff food down your throat when you get in a place like that.”

For several weeks after the accident, Shoemaker couldn’t speak. But his voice seemed strong Tuesday.

“The first couple of months, I was on a respirator,” Shoemaker said. “It wasn’t easy to breathe. I said to myself, ‘This is it, I’m not going to make it now.’ I had my doubts two or three times. But after those couple of months, I got better and I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I never gave up, I didn’t quit. And it paid off, because here I am.

“I couldn’t feel better, unless I could jump up and walk out of this chair. Now, seeing my horses has been like being in heaven to me.”

Shoemaker recognizes the irony of his accident. “I’ve ridden in 40,000 races and I’ve had a lot of falls,” he said, “but I never had a spinal injury. Then an automobile got me. You never know.”

Cindy Shoemaker said that her husband’s philosophical attitude when he rode has helped him through his recovery. Johnny Longden, who held the record for riding victories until Shoemaker broke it with 8,833 winners, always said he envied Shoemaker’s equanimity.

Said Cindy Shoemaker: “Bill used to tell me that it was good never to let the wins get you too high and never let the losses take you too low. That’s been his demeanor all the way through this.”

At home, Shoemaker undergoes about an hour of therapy each day. “I still have hope,” he said. “I hope I’ll get my arms and legs back and be able to walk up and down the track again.”

Gary Stevens, one of California’s premier jockeys, is familiar with Shoemaker’s injury-riddled career as a rider. “Shoe’s pulled a lot of miracles out of the hat before, and I hope he’s got one miracle left,” Stevens said.

Shoemaker uses two wheelchairs, one of which is a sip-and-puff model that he controls with his breath. It weighs 300 pounds. “I knocked a few holes in the wall in Colorado,” he said.

In about five weeks, he will have a Swedish wheelchair that he will be able to control with his chin.

Shoemaker has 25 horses stabled at Santa Anita and about 15 at Hollywood Park. He has two horses entered Thursday at Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting. During his absence, the business was kept together by his wife, assistant Patrick Gallagher and others, with Shoemaker watching tapes of the races in Colorado and giving daily instructions by phone.

Gallagher will be in Paris Sunday to saddle Fire The Groom in the Prix de l’Opera at Longchamp. The filly has given the Shoemaker barn some of its richest victories.

“She’d give me a big boost if she won that race,” Shoemaker said.

Times staff writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story.