In the Shadow of Michael Baze: Horse Racing's Addiction Problem

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Garry Jones / AP

Jockey Michael Baze waits to ride in the seventh race at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., Oct. 8, 2010. Baze was pronounced dead at 4:47 p.m. EDT on Tuesday May 10, 2011 in his vehicle parked in the stable area at Churchill Downs, just days after the Kentucky Derby.

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Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey, a recovering alcoholic who quit drinking in 1989 and attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, told TIME that Baze's death was heartbreaking. "I didn't know him well but we'd met," he says. "I wish I'd had any inkling he was struggling with addiction. I would've told him [that even] if I wasn't in his exact place, it was very close, and I was able to turn it around."

Another Hall of Famer, Pat Day, who won nine Triple Crown races and is the top money winner in the sport, would certainly recognize echoes of his life in Baze's. Day had become a heavy substance abuser, with a preference for cocaine, which he said made him feel supremely confident in the saddle. He also drank heavily, smoked pot and popped pills. All the while, he was the most successful rider in the country in 1982 and 1983. But he felt empty. "I was not a good guy," Day told TIME. "I was arrogant and egotistical and would go to any lengths to satisfy myself. Because of my position and financial ability, I was able to get out of a lot of trouble the average person couldn't have, which continued to feed the feeling I could do whatever I wanted and not be responsible." Religion changed Day's life. A born-again Christian, he is the industry representative of the Racetrack Chaplaincy of America.

Beyond AA or religious conversion, some jockeys also avail of various employee-assistance programs offered by some, but not all, race tracks around the country. Psychologist Curtis Barrett helped get the program in Churchill Downs started and later founded the Winners Federation, a national advocacy that tries to educate the racing industry about addiction. He acknowledges that treatment programs struggle to find funding in the industry but says there is a growing awareness that racing needs to look out not only for horses but people. "It's possible to get terribly frustrated and disappointed," he tells TIME. But, he says, "there are really good things going on that need to be built on." Still, says Terry Meyocks, executive director of the Jockey's Guild, "There's more than 100 race tracks. [Jockeys aren't] all Guild members. Each state has its own policy. And nobody's got any money."

There have been three memorial services for Michael Baze so far. His long-estranged father mournfully told the Courier-Journal of Louisville that he'd also struggled with drugs and alcohol and believed that he may have passed that on to his son. "That's my guilt," he told the paper. Meanwhile, Baze's mother has come to terms with the stories about Michael's drug abuse. She remembered her "little man of the house" who watched over his siblings while she was out working. She says she just hopes there is someone watching over him now.

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