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Why on earth would a guy like Espinoza, who has been aboard winners in seven Triple Crown races, with more than 3,300 career victories, do that? To outsiders, it sounds absurd, this idea that a legendary jockey would climb out of bed on a Sunday morning to ride a horse for practice, for free. “But when we ride the horses, there is a reason we are followed by an ambulance.’’ He wanted to show his visitor the brown leather and black-cushioned saddle that he used to ride American Pharoah to victory in the 2015 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, resulting in racing’s first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. He spent most of the interview sitting in that hard-back chair, but at the end of the conversation, he summoned caregiver Rosie Aponte to accompany him on a slow trek up a set of stairs to a glistening souvenir sitting in a glass case. His hair is growing long because he cannot remove his neck brace for a trim. The usually clean-shaven athlete, once glamorous enough to appear on “Dancing With The Stars,’’ was sporting a scraggly goatee because he cannot shave. That fear lives daily with Espinoza, and he discussed it openly in a recent 90-minute interview in his home. Somebody who might not be returning to the saddle. “What happened to Victor is the thing we fear the most,’’ says fellow Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, who has visited Espinoza. He spends his days away from the track where he once won seven races in one day, fighting through the isolation of physical therapy and mental frustration. He plans on riding again but says he can’t even think about it right now. “It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”
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“Your body has to reset itself, to learn how to do everything all over again,’’ says Espinoza, 46. He is getting stronger every day, but remains confined to the neck brace and experiences occasional bouts of searing pain. He can feed himself, but slowly, and mostly with one hand. He requires a 24-hour caregiver to help him get out of bed, dress and bathe.
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He has since regained feeling in everything except his left arm, yet his mobility is greatly limited and his muscles are wracked with uncertainty.