Gordon Waterstone

Lexington, KY — Veteran New York-based horseman Jay Randall turned 60 on May 1, and to him age was just a number. That all changed just 11 days later on May 12 when Randall was involved in a race accident at Saratoga Harness that led to him being transported by ambulance to Albany Medical Center.

“I am very fortunate that I’ve never felt 60 in my life. I was in good shape and very active,” Randall said earlier this week from his home in Ballston Spa, N.Y., where he returned after spending nearly two weeks in the hospital. “In all honesty, a couple of weeks after I was in the wreck I was a hurting puppy. I was feeling older than 60.”

Jay Randall has won 4,438 races and $25,496,351 in purse earnings. Saratoga photo.

What’s now good news for Randall is that he is within a few weeks of returning to the racetrack, including driving and training his small stable of two horses.

“I have one more doctor to see next week and hopefully that will be the final checked-off box to where I will be ready to go back to driving and stuff,” said Randall. “I’m feeling a lot better. I was very fortunate in more ways than one.”

Randall has no recollection of the accident, which occurred in race two, a division of the opening leg of the Virginia O’Brien Pacing Series, that afternoon at Saratoga. He was driving a pacer named Gucciriffic toward the back of the field when a breaking horse in front of him fell at the half, which led to a chain reaction and four other horses colliding and falling.

While all the other horses and drivers involved suffered only minor injuries at worse, Randall wasn’t so lucky.

Randall suffered 11 broken ribs, a punctured lung, a small brain bleed and a concussion. It was because of the concussion that Randall can’t remember what happened, even after watching the video once in the immediate aftermath.

“I saw one video on my wife’s phone the first day or two I was in the hospital but I don’t remember it,” he said. “I don’t remember anything. I also dealt with some double vision for awhile but that has passed.

“I’ve had a training accident where I broke my leg and I’ve also been in a wreck where I broke my wrist, but this one kicked my butt. It was the worst one.”

Randall required surgery to repair his broken ribs, and then six days after the accident his wife, Dawn, gave an update on social media, giving a glimpse of her husband’s ordeal.

“Today was a really, really hard day,” she wrote. “Jay is in so much pain. Even with a pain catheter, oral pain medication, and IV pain medication, he is really suffering. The nurses said today was the hardest day. I am praying that is true and he will get better every day.”

Dawn’s prayers were answered as her husband is now in the final stages of a complete recovery.

“I was fortunate that the only operation I had was the rib plating,” said Randall. “There were a couple of other things that had to be monitored, like a concussion, small brain bleed, punctured lung, and I had a couple of small fractures in the vertebrae in my back. They saw a couple of marks where I was stepped on and a couple people told me that I was stepped on.

“I saw the surgeon a couple of days ago and I had two broken ribs on one side and nine broken ribs on the other side, and they plated as many as they could,” he said. “They are all healed and the surgeon said they are as good as before I was injured. That’s certainly good to hear. I am extremely lucky.”

Randall, who has won 4,438 races and $25,496,351 in purse earnings, was third in the Saratoga dash standings at the time of the accident with 24 victories. He admits that thoughts of retirement came to mind while he was recovering in the hospital.

“To be 100 percent honest, a couple weeks into this ‘adventure,’ I had thought about (retiring),” said Randall, whose career saw a resurgence the last three years when he won 476 races and more than $3.6 million in purse earnings, including a career-high $1,953,616 in 2019. “You’re laying in the hospital and you’ve been operated on and hurting in places harder than you ever hurt before. It’s hard not to think that way. With less and less pain, and a couple of months past the accident, and the operation and two months of healing, now I feel great. I’m more than ready to go. I’m just waiting for the final blessing from the last doctor.”

Randall is grateful for the outpouring of support from the horse community, especially in finding a home for the two horses in his barn.

“We were able to piece those out very quickly,” he said. “I was very fortunate that people helped out without even being asked. I am very lucky in many ways.”

Randall expressed gratitude to his doctors and nurses for his care, but he singled out his wife Dawn as the most important factor in his recovery. With COVID protocols in place, she could only visit her husband twice a day and with only one other person at most. He said he received daily visits from his daughter Katie and son Adam and his wife, Katelyn.

“My wife has been fantastic,” Randall said about Dawn, who wrote social media posts to keep people informed of his condition. “Going to the hospital two times a day, taking care of me while I was in the hospital, taking care of me at home, and trying to keep everyone updated. She certainly went above and beyond, that’s for sure.”

Randall jested that his wife could have a future in nursing if she desired.

“I think she’s halfway there after the last couple months taking care of me. I’m sure that would be worth a couple of nurse credits,” he said with a laugh.

Randall admits despite that early apprehension, he’s anxious to climb back into the sulky.

“I’ve had the same trainers that I drove for the last couple of years reaching out to me to let them know when I’m ready,” he said. “I drive for some really good trainers and I have great faith in them, just like they have great faith in me.”

Randall said he also found some positive in spending the past two months recovering at home. And that doesn’t include watching racing and New York Mets games on TV.

“The one good thing spending as much time at home is that my wife has been just unbelievable,” he said. “Not that I was unaware of that before, but she went above and beyond any way possible to make sure I was getting anything I needed. Getting to the doctors, and making sure that I was well aware that everybody in the family loved me.”