After Surgery, Jerkens Trying to Slow Down. But Can He?

[Wandering Eyes]

With Saratoga approaching, trainer Jimmy Jerkens, 59, was hit with the very last thing he needed, chest pains that led to a trip to the emergency room that led to heart surgery. Surgeons had to insert stents to clear blockages.

The surgery took place in early July and, as expected, Jerkens’s doctor told him he needed to change his habits. More exercise, a better diet, less stress and a lighter work schedule. The problem is, there’s no way to be a successful trainer on the New York circuit and, especially at Saratoga, unless you put in extraordinary hours and push yourself. So, for Jerkens, Saratoga 2018 will be about more than winning races. He must manage his health situation. But trainers work seven days a week, maybe 12 hours a day. This will not be easy.

“When you’re in a competition like this, you don’t want to let anything slip if you can help it,” he said. “You have to keep participating and you have to keep thinking all the time. It takes a lot. Every day you have to observe your horses and communicate with the owners. It’s more than a full time job. It has to be your whole life or else I can’t imagine how you can get very far.”

Jerkens is, of course, the son of the late Allen Jerkens, one of the legendary figures in New York racing history. (For more on Jerkens’ relationship with his father and his memories of the time he beat Secretariat in the GI Whitney click here). His father was leading trainer at Saratoga from 1971 through 1973 and the younger Jerkens, already assisting his father, still remembers what it took to win those titles.

“I just remember relentless work,” he said. “It was only a four-week meet then and it seemed like we were running four or five a day. It was just incredible.”

From his father, he learned that you could not win unless you went at maximum speed at all times. The lessons paid off as the younger Jerkens has become one of the top trainers on the New York circuit. After working for his father for more than 25 years, Jerkens went out on his own in 1997. He’s won 69 graded stakes races and has been particularly productive at Saratoga, where he has won two runnings of the GI Travers S., the GI Woodward S., the GII Jim Dandy S. and the GII Bernard Baruch S.

One race he has not won is the GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial S., formerly known as the GI King’s Bishop S. Obviously, he’d be thrilled to win a Grade I race named after his father, but he isn’t confident it will happen any time soon.

“It would mean a lot to win that race, for obvious reasons,” Jerkens said. “But I just don’t seem to get that type of horse (3-year-old dirt sprinters) in my barn. We were third one year with a nice horse named Desert Key (E Dubai) in 2008 (when the race was still named the King’s Bishop). I don’t think I’ve run in it since.”

He doesn’t have many stars in his barn this year but was expecting a productive and healthy Saratoga. That changed the instant his started to feel severe chest pains.

“I wasn’t really feeling well for a while, but I kind of ignored it because it tends to happen to you a lot in this business,” Jerkens said. “You get run down and tired in this business. But then one night I had these horrible chest pains.”

He was back at the barn four days later, but says that’s not as crazy as it might seem.

“You can sit in the barn and observe things, instead of sitting at home,” he said. “I backed off on the physical part. I used to take horses out in the afternoon myself, and they’d be tugging on me and rearing up and stomping at me. I haven’t gotten back to doing that yet. But I’d like to get back to taking them out myself.”

Not that Jerkens is ignoring his doctors. He says he’s lost 15 pounds since the heart scare and is trying to learn to delegate more responsibilities to his help. That hasn’t been easy.

“I would like it if I could delegate more things to other people,” Jerkens said. “But I’m the kind of guy who likes to do everything myself, which I realize isn’t a realistic approach. I like to do things my way and that’s the only way I know. I just don’t know how realistic it is for me to change much more than I was before this happened.”

He is on medications, but says they have made him less energetic.

Jerkens wants to be healthy, but it’s clear that his desire to be a winning horse trainer is even more important. Most of the successful trainers are like that. Training comes first, before family, vacations, sleep and general relaxation. The hours they put in are excessive. Jerkens will try to change as much as he can, but don’t expect much to be any different.

“You are who you are,” he said.

 

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