JOCKEY BATTLING CANCER;
INCURABLE DISEASE DOESN'T STOP DETERMINED WARHOL
By: Jeff Apel
Wearing a wig makes jockey Vicki Warhol feel like a winner in a race that's far from over. She's just leaving the starting gate in her battle against lymphoma. Chemotherapy used to treat the.... incurable cancer that's currently in remission has left Warhol with plenty of bad hair days. "Right now I'm done with the chemo,'' Warhol said. "My hair is coming back. It's coming back wild.''
Warhol hides her short hairstyle under a blond wig when she's not riding at Fonner Park. Seeing herself with hair again gives Warhol hope that one day she will beat a disease that results from out of control body cells forming tumors.
"She's a gutty little gal. I'll tell you that,'' said trainer David C. Anderson. "You've got to really commend her for having the moral strength and the mental strength to come back. Let alone having your body strong enough.''
Not riding again never was an option for Warhol when she was told last June that she had cancer. She wasn't about to give up.
"It was quite a shock,'' said David Essman, a fellow jockey who is Warhol's husband. "You always think it's going to happen to somebody else.
"But you couldn't find a stronger person to do it to. I'll tell you she's as tough as nails.''
Warhol's softer side comes out as she discusses a disease that can be caused by smoking. She turns teary eyed while calling smoking a "bad habit'' that could be the source of an illness that can also be traced to diet and lifestyle choices.
"I've been through worse,'' Warhol said. "I don't like being patient period. I felt good until they started messing with me.''
Warhol's cancer is located in different clusters throughout her body. A lump on her breast led to a diagnosis that was followed by chemotherapy sessions.
The chemotherapy started last October and lasted until just before the Fonner Park meet began on Valentine's Day. For three hours every three weeks, Warhol would watch as an IV pumped medicine into her that was supposed to make her feel better.
It didn't.
"I'm not used to feeling sick all the time. I'm a healthy person,'' Warhol said. "Every day I'd wake up feeling like crap -- every day.''
Clumps of hair began falling out of Warhol's head as the chemotherapy progressed. She wound up shaving her head then started wearing hats after realizing that being bald in the middle of winter wasn't a good idea.
"If it wouldn't have been cold I would have just went on with nothing,'' Warhol said. "When you walk outside it's cold.''
Essman knew his wife of 12 years was hurting each time she looked in the mirror. "The toughest part about it was when she lost her hair. That was tough to handle,'' Essman said. "But she's kind of having fun with the wigs and everything.''
The blond wig makes the rider who responds "early 40s'' when asked about her age look younger. She then points out that she is much younger than Perry Compton -- a 51-year-old rider who is the same age as the track he is competing at.
Compton considers Warhol's return to the saddle an extraordinary feat.
"It's pretty amazing,'' Compton said. "Some people when they get diagnosed with cancer go downhill right away. Others just seems to be able to bounce back. I don't know what the difference is.''
Determination is what has enabled Warhol to keep going. She put aside her feelings of fatigue and anger to ride Tee Times Two to a 7-length win in the $11,775 Bachman Stakes. That win is one of 11 enjoyed by Warhol, who is currently fifth in the rider standings.
"I don't think that most people could have been as stupid to do this,'' Warhol said. "But I wasn't going to sit around and not do anything. I just kept moving and stuff.''
For six months in her hometown of Altoona, Iowa, Warhol didn't do anything with horses while trying to get better. The chemotherapy brought out a big change in a women known for her easy-going nature. She said it made her "mean -- not crabby.''
"The worse part about it was the cure. That's what tore her up the most,'' Essman said. "She was feeling good until she went to cure it with the chemo. That took quite a big toll on her.
"But she played tough. And she wasn't about to get down about it.''
Explaining to her 12-year-old daughter Teddi why mom was so mean was tough for Warhol. Tears form in her eyes as she talks about the punishment she never intended to dish out.
"I was not mean all the time,'' Warhol said. "But the first two days after chemo I was really mean. And I'm not like that.''
Because her cancer is in remission, Warhol isn't scheduled to visit the doctor again for two months. When she does, she will be careful about what she asks.
"I don't ask anymore than I want,'' Warhol said. "Otherwise I might know what I have to do next. I don't really want to know.''
Warhol's father Ted died of colon cancer. The jockey's daughter is named in honor of a man who Warhol watched get sicker and sicker.
"At least the chemo worked,'' Warhol said. "I hadn't known anybody personally that it worked on.
"My dad just got so sick. It didn't help.''
Because she is a female competing in a sport dominated by men, Warhol is a fan favorite. The fans who ask for goggles or want an autograph have no idea what the rider is going through.
"I wish her all the luck in the world because that's a tough deal to fight. I don't care who's got it,'' Anderson said. "I commend her very, very much. She's a gutty gal.''
Warhol knows fighting gives her a better chance of beating a disease there is no known cure for. She realizes her cancer could flare up again at anytime -- but just doesn't know when. She wishes she did. "It could not do anything for a month or a year or five years. They don't know,'' Warhol said. "Maybe if it takes about five or 10 years they may have a cure by then.
"Right now it's incurable. I don't like that.''
--------------------------------------------------
JOCKEY ICON WARHOL IS BACK RIDING AT PRAIRIE MEADOWS
By: Dan Johnson
Vicki's back.
The newest face in Prairie Meadows' jockey colony is also one of its most familiar. Vicki Warhol, the queen of Prairie Meadows during the track's first decade, rode in her first race at the track in two years Saturday.
Warhol finished third in the ninth race on Hot Wheels Missie. While she rode thoroughbreds almost exclusively during her heyday, this was a 440-yard quarter horse dash, showing she is anxious to show trainers she will ride for them.
"I'm fresh and hungry, and they'd be smart to put me on," Warhol said.
Warhol won 100 races when Prairie Meadows opened in 1989 and was the track's leading rider in 1993-94 and '96 while riding for trainer Dick Clark's powerful stable. When they parted company, Warhol's business waned and so did her wins.
While she and husband-jockey David Essman have a house in Altoona, Warhol started spending her summers riding in Nebraska or Colorado.
She won eight races at Fonner Park in Nebraska in the spring, then gave up jockeying to be an exercise rider and pony person - the person on a pony that accompanies racehorses in the post parade - at Canterbury Park in Minnesota.
"I decided I shouldn't be sitting on a pony," Warhol said.
She has battled lymphoma, but says she's been free of the disease for a year and doesn't need a checkup for another six months. Her daughter, Teddi Jean, born during the height of Warhol's success, is now 14 and talks of following her parents' footsteps and becoming a jockey.
Warhol nearly died in a spill at the Woodlands in Kansas several years ago, but still wants to ride.
So she is back at Prairie Meadows. She last rode at Prairie Meadows in 2004 and her last win at the track was in 2003. Just like in the old days, she and Essman battled through the stretch of Saturday's race, with Essman winning on Hooked On Sierra.
She is named on two horses today.
With 577 victories at Prairie Meadows, Warhol is the track's fifth-leading rider in career wins, behind Glenn Corbett, the retired Cindy Murphy, Essman and Terry Thompson. She remains confident that she still has the winning touch.
"I should be riding more live ones," she said. "If I can get the bad ones to run, why not the live horses?"
--------------------------------------------------
JOCKEY WARHOL TRAMPLED BY SALE PHILLY; OUT INDEFINITELY
Prairie Meadows jockey Vicki Warhol is out indefinitely after having a shoulder and five ribs broken while being trampled by a horse in its stall.
Warhol and her daughter, Teddi, were helping prepare yearlings for the Aug. 27 Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association sale. Warhol said she was getting ready to lead a filly out of her stall so she could clean her up when the filly reared up and struck her on the shoulder and ribs. Warhol was knocked to the ground, where the filly continued striking her.
"She became unglued on me and started pounding me to the ground," Warhol said. "She kind of meant it."
The stall door was closed, so Warhol was trapped until help arrived.
"It seemed like I was down for a long time," she said. "I started yelling, 'Open the door!' All I wanted was to get out of there. I'm just glad it wasn't Teddi."
Warhol had a piece of bone atop her right shoulder broken off as well as the five broken ribs and a bruise on her head. She spent six hours at Mercy Medical Center but is recuperating at her Altoona, Iowa, home.
Warhol, who was Prairie Meadows' leading rider in 1993, 1994, and 1996, said she didn't know how long the recovery would take.
"I don't like being on the ground," she said. "I'd rather be on their back."
2 comments:
Cool honey, I can see why you guys had so much fun with them. It was probably Karen's insoiration for sara and her horses!
What a spirit!
Post a Comment