Simard On The Mend

Well-travelled Canadian driver Richard “The Cat” Simard has been admitted to plenty of hospitals over the years, but it usually happened after spills. This time was different

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Simard, 50, checked himself into a Florida hospital last month because of lingering pains in his abdomen.

"I hadn't been feeling good since Christmas. I thought it was the flu," said Simard, who was wintering at Pompano Park. "Then I started to get these shooting pains. For me to go to the hospital on my own, it had to be pretty bad."

Doctors quickly determined the problem was his appendix, and within hours, he underwent an emergency appendectomy. After six days in hospital, he was released this week.

The last few days, he's been grooming a horse he owns at Pompano, though doctors have told him it's too early yet to jog, let alone drive in a race.

"It's a blow, coming after what was a terrible year for me (at Tioga Downs), but I'm not giving up. When you're at the bottom, the only way is up," said Simard, a career winner of 5,314 races who expects to resume driving at Pompano, then return to Ontario for the summer meet at Rideau Carleton Raceway.

(Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)