After Battling Substance Abuse Issues, Belmont Winner Jeremy Rose Launches a Comeback

Back in 2005, when he won the GI Preakness S. and the GI Belmont S. with Afleet Alex (Northern Afleet), Jeremy Rose was convinced that the run he was on would never end. He was just 26, had already won more than 950 races and had won an Eclipse Award in 2001 as the nation's top apprentice. Rose was well established as one of the top riders in the Mid-Atlantic region, was earning in the mid-six figures every year and his best years seemed yet to come.

“It may sound arrogant, but I thought there was no stopping me,” Rose said. “I was on a roll. Alex put me on a pedestal, allowed me to go to a place few jockeys get to go. I was winning a lot of races, making good money. I was being flown all over the country to ride for people like Graham Motion. I couldn't do anything wrong. It was awesome.”

Seventeen years after Afleet Alex won the Belmont, Rose will not be riding at Belmont Park this Saturday but some 150 miles to the south, down the road to Delaware Park. He's 43 now and has ridden just two winners on the year. But he's not feeling sorry for himself. After all that he's been through, the addiction to opiods, the battle with alcohol, some 2 1/2 years away from the track, he's just happy to be back.

“I really let things get out of control,” he said.

Afleet Alex ran well in the GI Kentucky Derby, but finished third behind Giacomo (Holy Bull). It was in the Preakness that he showed his talent and his athleticism. Afleet Alex was making what looked like a winning move coming out of the far turn when Scrappy T (Fit to Fight) bore out in front of him, causing Afleet Alex to clip heels with his rival. For an instant, it appeared that Afleet Alex was going to go down in what could have been a horrific spill, but he somehow righted himself and carried Rose to a 4 3/4-length victory.

Come Belmont time, there was little doubt who the best 3-year-old in training was. Afleet Alex, in what would be his last-ever start, blew the field away, winning by seven lengths.

“I thought Jeremy rode a tremendous race,” winning trainer Tim Ritchey said afterward.

Rose finished the year with 178 wins and had 221 in 2006 and 288 in 2007.

Afleet Alex nearly goes down in the Preakness | Horsephotos

He may have thought there was nothing that could stop him, but that was proven wrong in 2008. In a race at Delaware Park, Rose struck his mount, Appeal to the City (Appealing Skier), with his whip in the eye, causing the eye to hemorrhage. He said he did not mean to injure the horse, but the Delaware Park stewards took no mercy. They initially suspended him for six months, a penalty that was reduced to 90 days on appeal. The incident happened shortly after Eight Belles (Unbridled's Song) had broken down in the Derby, and animal rights activists were not in a forgiving mood and pointed their slings and arrows at Rose, who was the target of death threats.

“Mentally, it took me a long time to bounce back from that, if I ever did bounce all the way back,” Rose said. “That was something I didn't let go of. They sent emails to commissions that they were going to kill me. They said they were coming in to take my dogs away from me. I got crucified.”

Rose was eventually able to put the incident behind him, but he was about to face a problem much more debilitating. As happens with most every jockey, riding started to take a toll on him. In constant pain, he thought he was doing the right thing when he went to a doctor for help. He was prescribed OxyContin.

“I can't remember exactly when I started,” he said. “I had all kinds of old fractures. My neck was hurting. My back was hurting. If you're a jockey and you're not racing, unless you have disability insurance, no money is coming in. You have to keep riding and you have to win races.”

When the drugs were first given to him, he had no idea how dangerous they were.

“I was driving to New York with an agent friend of mine and I had either Oxy or Percocet in the cup holder and he saw them and said to me, 'Do you know those pills are just like heroin?' I said, 'How can that be, a doctor prescribed them to me,'” Rose said. “Up until the time I was prescribed OxyContin, I literally had never taken a drug. At most, I was a social drinker. I would have a couple of beers and that was it. So when I got prescribed pain pills, I thought it was like getting ibuprofen. I had no idea it was even a narcotic.”

As is so often the case with opiods, they took over Rose's life. Desperate for the drug, he started buying them on the street and said he was taking as much as 300 milligrams a day.

For the most part, he was able to hide the addiction from trainers and owners, but anyone paying attention to his numbers could have told that there was something wrong. He won just 78 races in 2012 and 59 in 2013. He said that he was in and out of rehab over the next couple of years and was able to finally stay clear of the pills in 2014. But that wasn't the end of his problems.

He replaced one addiction with another. Alcohol became his next issue.

“The pills are easier to stay away from than alcohol,” he said. “You have to buy them on the street corner or go to a doctor to get them. Alcohol is on every corner. I can be sitting in a parking lot and see three liquor stores right in front of me. I could get alcohol any time I wanted and it was, for the most part, socially acceptable. I went from one thing to another and let things get out of control with alcohol. One thing about alcoholics, we like having instant gratification. That's why you like alcohol and drugs. You get that right away. For a jockey, it's the same thing when you win a race–instant gratification.”

In 2019, a year after he got married, he was in the midst of another miserable year in which he would win just 35 races. So, he walked away. His last mount that year came at Parx on Dec. 7. He knew it was time to focus on his mental health and his substance issues and, at least for a while, forget about being a jockey. He spent much of his time working at his family's pizza shop in Lewistown, Pa. and faced his demons head on. He said he has been sober for more than two years.

Rose with Afleet Alex | Horsephotos

For a while, he didn't know if he was going to come back or not, but he never strayed too far from the sport. A few times a week, he would travel from his home in Pennsylvania to work horses for trainer Anthony Pecoraro.

“When you go away one of two things can happen,” he said. “You either forget about it completely or you start getting the itch to come back. I kept coming in and worked horses for Pecoraro. That kept me in the game a little bit. The more I did it the more I got that itch to ride again.”

He made his return on May 12 at Penn National, finishing fifth in a starter optional claimer aboard Special Beam (Divining Rod) for Pecoraro. Thirteen days later, he had his first winner since coming back, guiding Our Sweet Pea (Micromanage) to a win in a $12,500 claimer. He won again on June 1, again for Pecoraro. He entered Wednesday's card at Delaware with a record of 2-for-9 on the year.

He knows that the days of his vying for leading rider at Delaware are probably in the past.

“Do I have the ability and do I still think I can ride a smart race? Yes,” he said. “And I'm as fit as I've ever been. I don't feel like I've really aged. I'm still solid and I'm as light as I've been in years. I left the room today at 114 pounds and it's been all natural. It's not like I've been killing myself to cut weight. I think I can ride at that level. Am I going to get those horses? That is the issue. To be realistic, probably not. You have these guys at Delaware, younger riders who are good, like Jaime Rodriguez. Now that I've ridden against him a few times I can see that he is a very natural, very gifted rider. The trainers are going to go with someone like him. That's just the way it is. There are trainers I have a background with and they might give me a shot. If I'm in the top five in the standings, to me, that will be a good meet.”

After the 2005 Belmont, he never got another chance on Afleet Alex, who came down with a hairline fracture in his left front cannon bone and was retired. He knows it's highly unlikely that he'll ever get a mount like that again. But there's no point in fixating on his past, the good or the bad. He'll watch the Belmont on television Saturday and try to win some races at Delaware Park. There will be no complaints.