“I was going absolutely nuts, and my body couldn’t handle it,” McCarthy said. They are all used to the ups and downs of the job, from the broken pelvis and collarbone from his spill during a race in November to the uncertain hold on a ride.Ī particularly rough summer, including flying up and down the East Coast to ride, took a toll on McCarthy, who at 118 pounds could feel his diet and lack of calories affect his work. His father was a jockey, as is his father-in-law and his wife, Katie Davis McCarthy. McCarthy last year, like da Silva before him, sought help before it was too late. Look, there’s proof of it, right? We lost two guys.” With the mental and physical state, when you mix both of them together, it can be a recipe for disaster. “We take a lot of beatings mentally and physically. “This needs to be addressed,” jockey Trevor McCarthy said. While jockeys interviewed for this story worry that racing has lagged behind other sports in accepting the importance of their mental health on the job, there is hope that renewed conversation about it prompts real change. Combine that with criticism from owners, trainers and bettors and the need to maintain the low weight necessary to establish a career, and jockeys have been quietly suffering for as long as they have been riding horses. The dangers of riding thoroughbreds at high speed add up to an average of two jockeys dying from racing each year and 60 being paralyzed, according to one industry veteran. READ MORE: 988 mental health line receives over 2 million calls and texts in 6 months “This is not all of a sudden just happening. “I know several riders that I knew very well committed suicide when it was all said and done,” Smith said. A friend of Whisman’s, Triple Crown-winning rider Mike Smith, said he has seen similar tragedies over three decades. He’s one of the lucky ones.Įarlier this year, horse racing was stunned by the suicides less than six weeks apart of two young jockeys, 23-year-old Avery Whisman and 29-year-old Alex Canchari. “I went because if I have no choice, I would kill myself.”ĭa Silva got help in 2006 and rode for more than a decade before retiring. “I got to the point where I have no more choice but to go for help,” he recalled recently. WATCH: 41% of surveyed LGBTQ+ youth considered suicide in the past year At home, he was fighting suicidal thoughts every day. On the track, the jockey in his early 30s was winning races and making money. īALTIMORE (AP) - Eurico Rosa da Silva was in a dark place. If you or someone you know has talked about contemplating suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-80, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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