Vernon Bush Wins Randy Romero Pure Courage Award

Jockey Vernon Bush has been named the winner of the 2022 Randy Romero Pure Courage Award, an honor given to the jockey who has overcome serious injuries and/or adversities.

Bush returned to riding at 61 after back-to-back injuries. He sat out two years while recovering from a broken femur, which required 12 screws and a plate above his kneecap to repair. Prior to that, he was off the previous two years from a broken ankle, which required 12 screws and two plates. Bush also went through two hip surgeries, including a hip replacement. When he won at Belterra Park in May 2022, it marked a more than four-and-a-half-year wait to return to the winner's circle.

At the close of voting Feb. 12, Bush received 612 of 785 votes that were cast.

The Randy Romero "Pure Courage" Award honors the memory of the late Hall of Fame member best known for his winning ride aboard unbeaten Personal Ensign in the 1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs.

Kayla Hall, Bush's daughter and a 33-year-old Ocala, Fla., resident, said she is in awe every time her father climbs on a Thoroughbred, especially in the waning days of his 45-year career.

"I'm scared of horses," she said, laughing. But the main source of her admiration is her father's sobriety that will reach a two-year milestone in April.

"It has changed his life around completely," Hall said of her father, who usually attends at least five Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week. "I always knew how much courage he has being a jockey, but I look up to him more now. My dad is my best friend."

The award's co-founder and Romero's former agent, Rick Mocklin, said tentative plans are for Bush to receive the award March 26 at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans. Bush hopes to ride a race that day and plans to arrange for Hall and his son Vern Vicallo, a professional wrestler, to be there.

"It's a good feeling to be honored with an award that has Randy's name attached to it," Bush said. He rode against Romero at Churchill Downs, Keeneland, and Turfway Park in Kentucky, and they often discussed their profession and life in general before, between and after races.

"(Romero) was intense about racing and he loved what he did. He went about it with every inch of his being, and he was a very strong competitor who had the will and the love and the determination to succeed," Bush said.

Bush, who has ridden 3,247 career winners, is best known for his success in New England at tracks no longer in operation. He won six riding titles at Suffolk Downs in Boston and four at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire. A long-time fixture at Tampa Bay Downs, he consistently finished among the leading riders here from 2002 through 2006. His mounts have earned $24,530,920 in purses.

Like Romero, who incurred an abundance of racing-related injuries requiring more than 20 surgeries, Bush has been beset by physical setbacks during the latter stages of his career. The Alexandria, Ky., native worked at Belterra Park in Ohio in 2019-20 as a jockeys' room supervisor and an entry-taker in the racing office. Yet he never stopped thinking about resuming the career that defined him to so many people.

"It's just something I've loved to do my whole life," said Bush, who returned to racing here last March and won six times later in the year at Belterra Park. "You do need a lot of courage to ride a race, to get on those 1,000-pound animals that travel 40 miles per hour in 12-to-14-horse fields. It takes split-second thinking, knowing what everybody is doing in front of you, and it does take courage.

"But I'm only doing something I've wanted to do since I was 3 years old. So it's strange being called courageous, because courage and fear. … it's that fine line."

The other finalists for the award were Vicente Del-Cid, runner-up in the balloting for the 2022 Eclipse Award as Outstanding Apprentice Jockey; Declan Cannon; Dylan Davis; Emanuel Nieves; and Patrick Canchari, who was ineligible for the award because his injury occurred in a car accident.

Bush is confident he will win a race this season at Tampa Bay Downs, even though he rarely rides more than one horse per card, if that. He exercised eight horses Feb. 12, about par for the course.

Sean Jones, a Tampa Bay Downs clocker and former jockey who observes the morning workouts, is astounded by Bush's work rate, but not as much as he would be if he didn't know him.

"He's as tough as nails. He's probably broken every bone in his body, but he loves to do it," Jones said. "He and Evel Knievel probably have a lot in common."

"I know I'm not going to ride the best horse anymore. I had all that," Bush said. "It's just being out here. The reason I started back riding (races) is that after I'd get on a horse in the morning, I'd go home and just sit there and wouldn't do anything. Then, one day I got on a scale and weighed 123 pounds, and I thought I could go back to riding and got myself fit again.

"I figure if I can ride one a day, just to keep my mind where it's supposed to be." … he said, gesturing to the jockeys' room. "That is my happy place in there. And out there," he added, surveying the racetrack, "that is my happy place."

Previous Pure Courage Award winners include the late Miguel Mena, winner of the inaugural 2020 trophy, and Marcelino Pedroza Jr.

Mike Henry contributed to this report.