John Pollard Quotes

“Maybe it was better to break a man’s leg than his heart.”

“Old Pops and I have got four good legs between us...Maybe that’s enough.”

“The racehorse, by virtue of his awesome physical gifts, freed the jockey from himself. When a horse and a jockey flew over the track together, there were moments in which the man’s mind wedded itself to the animal’s body to form something greater than the sum of both parts.”

“I got a great ride...The greatest ride I ever got from the greatest horse that ever lived.”

“Why rate him? He knows the poles better than I do.”

“Man is preoccupied with freedom yet laden with handicaps. The breadth of his activity and experience is narrowed by the limitations of his relatively weak, sluggish body.”

“He had no money and no home; he lived entirely on the road of the racing circuit, sleeping in empty stalls, carrying with him only a saddle, his rosary, and his books...The books were the closest things he had to furniture, and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.”