LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Just months after returning to racing following hip surgery, Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day is weighing his future.
Day, 51, is spending time alone in a cabin on the Kentucky River, deciding whether to continue racing and, if so, how much.
Sheila Day told The Courier-Journal of Louisville that her husband was "on a sabbatical" and doing some soul searching.
"He needs to know he's where God wants him to be," Sheila Day told the paper. Neither Pat nor Sheila Day returned phone messages from The Associated Press.
Churchill Downs vice president and spokesman John Asher, a longtime friend of the jockey, said Day didn't say anything about his future or taking time off from racing to weigh the possibilities.
"I can't say I'm 100 percent surprised he's doing this," Asher said. "He always said there were other things that would determine if he'd go on racing."
Day took time off this winter, riding only a few days in Florida while spending time at home for his daughter Irene's senior year in high school. When riding a full schedule, Day spends the summer at Saratoga.
A hip injury and surgery to repair damaged cartilage ended Day's record 21-year streak of Kentucky Derby mounts.
Day, who started racing in 1973, is racing's leading career money earner with purses totaling $297,941,912, according to industry record-keeper Equibase.
His 8,804 career victories rank fourth and trail only Russell Baze among active riders. He won 23 races this spring at Churchill, putting him 10th in the jockey standings and lifting his career total to a Churchill-best 2,481.
Day, elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991, resumed racing in mid-May and earned his first stakes win about a month later, guiding Two Trail Sioux to a start-to-finish victory in the $330,000 Fleur de Lis. His last race was the $1 million Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park on July 17.
