Richard Migliore Announced Retirement from the Track on Wednesday
Richard Migliore is an American Jockey who was born on March 14, 1964 in New York. In the Horse racing world, most often he is called ‘The Mig’. Actually The Mig is a type of Russian Fighter jet, and Migliore had known by this name because of his tenacious style of riding.
The hot news of the week is that Richard Migliore has announced the retirement from the track on Wednesday morning June 2, 2010. It was not his choice to retire but the doctors told him that he had sustained one broken neck too many times and riding again could be threatening to his life. Migliore underwent an accident due to a fall from his mount, Honest Wildcat, at Aqueduct on January 23, 2010. According to the doctors he had fractured vertebrae in the neck and spine, and while surgery they had to insert two plates and eight screws into his neck. This was a major and the most horrible accident of Richard’s career. After the surgery when he was asked how he felt about the mishap, he said "The surgery was rough, they really carved me up pretty bad this time, and I knew I was going to be a long shot to make it back”. In addition he said, 'You don't understand me, I've come back from injuries most people don't come back from. But when the doctor explained to me, Guys with a Level-2 fusion have to retire. You have a Level 4. That was the time I completely realized that I had to be responsible to myself and to my family and turn the page".
This must have been a crucial and decisive moment for Migliore, to leave what he has done for the last 30 years. The Brooklyn native was moved to tears at the thought of leaving the game, while talking to the press. The game he had made his life since he became a professional rider in 1980.
Migliore has always loved animals, especially horses ever since he was a child. Stephen A. DiMauro was the first trainer who taught him how to ride a racehorse. His first mount was on September 29, 1980 and his first win was less than a month later aboard Good Grip at Meadowlands Racetrack. While expressing his feelings about the moment he stepped into the horse racing world till the time he left, he said "I dropped out of the ninth grade and came to the University of Belmont Park, but I feel like I'm leaving with a doctorate".
Richard Migliore got injured on the race track three times, but a spill back in January at Aqueduct was the capper, which forced him to walk off the field. On May 30, 1988, for the first time Migliore suffered a near-fatal neck injury when he was thrown from Madam Alydar at Belmont Park. In July 1999, again he seriously fractured his right arm in another mount at Belmont and was out of the races for six months.
The man who is affectionately known by racing fans as "The Mig" leaves as a winner of 4,450 races from more than 30,000 mounts and earnings of more than $160 million. The account of the great achievements Migliore earned in the form of awards is the Eclipse Award for outstanding Apprentice Jockey (1981), Eddie Arcaro Award from the New York Turf Writers as an outstanding Jockey in the year 1981 and 1985, Mike Venezia Memorial Award (2003) and George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (2008).
Few of the major races he recently won include Ruthless Stakes (2010), Super Derby (2009), Test Stakes (2009), Withers Stakes (2009), Miesque Stakes (2008), Baldwin Stakes (2007), Pacific Classic Stakes (2007) and the list goes on. Richard Migliore won his first ‘Breeders Cup World Championship’ on October 25, 2008 at Santa Anita Park Racetrack California, when he rode Desert Code to victory.
Talking about the future, Migliore doesn’t know exactly what he is going to do next. But he is committed to being a friend of the horse. Saying last few words about the future ahead he said “I want to be as big an advocate as I can for retired thoroughbreds and give back to the horses that have given me so much, I want to make sure every horse is given the respect they deserve”.
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