Jockey Drayden Van Dyke is nearly ready to return to riding races, he told the Daily Racing Form this week, following a three-month hiatus from the sport. Van Dyke, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey of 2014, took the time to focus on his mental health.
“Toward the end of Del Mar, I felt it really strong,” Van Dyke told DRF. “I knew I needed to get myself right or I'd go further and further down. It was all mental. It was not drug-related or drinking too much. It was my mental approach. It took a while to get a hold of it.”
During his time away from the track, Van Dyke focused on physical fitness and learning to deal with the death of his father, Seth Van Dyke, a former jockey turned exercise rider who committed suicide in 2014.
“I never really had time to process that. I kept working and I kept riding races. I learned to block it out,” Van Dyke said. “When it first happened, in the first four or five years, I would cry all the time. I finally feel at peace with it. I haven't seen his grave since I went to the funeral. The funeral was a blur. I don't remember any of that time.”
Van Dyke returned to Santa Anita on Monday and was greeted warmly by the local horsemen.
He told DRF: “It's a cliché, but it's okay to say you're not okay and take the time you need.”
Read more at the Daily Racing Form.
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