Who said “lightning never strikes twice in the same place?”
Ironically, it did for two very active race track announcers who have now both suffered detached retinas during the past year.
Fair Grounds’ track announcer
John G. Dooley, who has
called the races at the nation’s third oldest Thoroughbred race course
for most of the last decade, was driving north from New Orleans to
Chicago to fulfill those same duties at Arlington
Park after Fair Grounds’ 2010-2011 season ended late last March when
his eyes started playing tricks on him.
Tampa Bay Downs’ track announcer
Richard Grunder was watching a
Kansas football game last October when he suddenly started having vision problems.
“I
started seeing something like a red line developing in my field of
vision,” Dooley said during a telephone conversation with Grunder on
Wednesday
morning. “I’d rub my eyes or blink thinking I was just tired from
driving and that it would go away, but it kept coming back.”
“That’s exactly the same thing that happened to me,” said Grunder, who has manned the microphone at the western
Florida
oval for almost three decades when responding to his professional peer.
“I’m a big Jayhawks fan, and I was watching the game with my son where
we played
Kansas
State when I started seeing a red line in my field of vision that wouldn’t go away.”
What
was fortunate for both men, who make their livings based on their
eyesight, was that they sought professional medical opinions without
a whole lot of delay and were quick to undergo eye surgery. If they had
ignored their problems, they were told, they would have lost their
vision entirely.
Dooley postponed a brief vacation to have eye surgery involving a “scleral buckle” before he assumed his duties in
Chicago.
Grunder,
who elected to have a “gastric bubble” procedure, was forced to lay
face down for up to six hours a day in the weeks after his surgery
to keep the gastric bubble in place, but is now back in the announcer’s
booth in Tampa.
“I
think both Richard and I are thankful to be back in action doing
something we both love,” said Dooley after he and Grunder finished
swapping
their respective surgery stories Wednesday. “We agreed to keep in touch
with each other during the winter as we continue our recoveries. It’s
like we’re going to have our own little support group now.”
J. BRIDGMOHAN WILL BE BACK BY WEEKEND
Jockey Jermaine Bridgmohan,
who suffered a sprained ankle in an incident at the starting gate prior
to Monday’s eighth race, could return as early as Thursday, his agent,
Derek Ducoing, said Wednesday.
“I
can’t say for sure about (Thursday) but he’ll be riding by the
weekend,” Ducoing said. “And as of now he’s on for (Thursday) but we’ll
just
have to see. It wasn’t that serious, though, and he’ll definitely be
back for the weekend.”
FAIR GROUNDS’ FIRST LADY OF FLOWERS RECOVERING AT HOME
Fair Grounds’ unofficial longtime local botanist Alice Stevenson, who has been responsible for the
hearty health of the local flora for many seasons at the Crescent City
oval, is now recovering
at her home after being released from Oschner Baptist Medical Center
following emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix earlier this month.
“We brought
Alice home from the hospital yesterday,” said
David Ball of Fair Grounds’
operations and valet services on Wednesday when speaking of his sister.
“She was so glad to get out of the hospital (where she was kept in
intensive care for some time after her surgery)
that I actually think it will help her recover more quickly.
“I
would think everyone might see her back at Fair Grounds in as soon as a
couple of weeks,” Ball said. “She’s been so concerned about her flowers
she was asking about those before she got out of intensive care.”
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR JULIAN ‘BUCK’ WHEAT HELD MONDAY AT FAIR GROUNDS
A memorial service honoring Julien “Buck” Wheat, Churchill Downs’ longtime director
of horsemen’s relations who died a week ago in Louisville, Kentucky,
was held Monday at Fair Grounds to honor
the unofficial “Mayor of the Churchill Downs Backside.”
Wheat made many friends during his frequent visits to
New Orleans, some of whom were Kentucky-based horsemen who wintered in the
Crescent
City, and a large group was in attendance
locally during Monday’s celebration of Wheat’s colorful career. A
similar service was held in the Churchill Downs Jockey Club Suites on
Wednesday.