Two weeks into the Bing Crosby Season and jockey Tyler Baze has three wins from eleven mounts. Not bad for a guy who was on death’s doorstep just a few months ago.
Baze has been riding at Del Mar since he captured the Eclipse Award for top apprentice jockey in 2000. His career has been a mix of peaks and valleys. Peaks that included rides in the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup to valleys filled with substance abuse and suspensions. But none of that mattered when he began suffering stomach pains earlier this year.
“Right after Christmas last year I started having problems,” Baze recalls. “I couldn’t eat; I couldn’t use the bathroom. I was in Arkansas and went to Urgent Care. Went there a couple two or three times. I went to the hospital a couple two or three times. They didn’t know what was wrong with me. I finally landed in the hospital with a bowel obstruction. I pretty much coliced like a horse.”
The 41-year-old rider was told if he didn’t have immediate surgery, he would die.
“I got admitted to the hospital on the 18th of April and they couldn’t find it until May 1ST,” Baze says. “I’ve broken a lot of bones but I’ve never felt a pain like that one. That guy came in after they finally found it and said you’re going to die if we don’t do the surgery right now.”
Surgeons cut through the muscles in his stomach to get to the problem.
“In the hospital I lost 20 pounds,” Baze notes. “Got down to 96 pounds. I was very brittle and very ugly to look at, that’s for sure.”
Fast forward six months later and Baze is back on horses, doing what he loves.
“I feel good, probably stronger than I’ve ever been,” claims Baze. “I’ve never worked out this hard and never been this healthy.”
He insists there’s no ‘load management’ involved in his comeback.
“I’d like to be on more horses but that’ll come around. If I’m driving down there (to Del Mar) I want to ride every race.”
Baze got back up on a horse a little over a month after the surgery.
“I’m a little cocky when it comes to my body,” Baze says. “I like to push things. I got up on a horse just before everybody left for Del Mar in July. I just wanted to get on a horse and test my body out. See where it’s at. It was a little painful but I was okay. It actually didn’t hurt as much as I was expecting.”
He rode his first race at the end of the summer meet at Del Mar for Michelle Hanson.
“It was kind of another test for my body to see where I was at,” Baze says. “I was fine. I had a bunch of people ask me to ride Los Al but I already had plans with my kids. They had a school camping trip. So I didn’t ride Los Al and started back at Santa Anita.”
Baze will tell you he’s had a pretty good career. His highlight came in 2014 when he notched his 2,000th win at Del Mar the day before his daughter was born.
“After you go through what I did, I tell you, when you get that close to death you take every moment,” he says. “I’m just blessed to be here because horses die from colic all the time. I could have got sepsis, that thing that poisons your blood. A lot of things could have gone wrong.
“All I can say is God wanted me here for some reason,” Baze continues. “Every time I get to go out on the racetrack I think about it a lot more now. A lot of people don’t get to do what I do. I love my job and I love my horses.”