Knapp Ends Losing Streak at Santa Anita
It was a long time between drinks for Steve Knapp.
When you start a meet with 25 straight losers, haven’t won a race since Dec. 21 at Hollywood Park, and are in the throes of the worst losing streak in your 14-year training career, it’s not easy to put on your game face every day, but the 57-year-old trainer managed to do it.
He ended his skid Sunday when Yes She’s Unusual, ridden by Brice Blanc, dead-heated for win and survived a stewards’ inquiry to win the sixth race, and Red Barris captured the ninth race, giving Joe Talamo his third win of the day.
Knapp is grateful to be plying his trade in one of nature’s most breathtaking settings, that of Santa Anita Park. When asked how things are going on any given morning, his response is typical: “Just another day in paradise.”
But paradise turned into Hades several weeks ago when Knapp’s 24-year-old son, Sammy, survived a life-threatening ordeal after being admitted to Mission Hospital with pneumonia.
“He went in the hospital with pneumonia, and they wound up doing surgery for a strep infection that developed in his lungs,” said Knapp, who has been training for 14 years. “When he came out of surgery, his oxygen level was very low, and they had to put him on paralytics, which paralyze your whole body.
“When he came out of surgery, neither lung was working. With his oxygen that low, they had to put him on machines to support his lungs and breathing.
“The paralytics helped oxygenate his blood; that’s how you get oxygen, through your blood. They put him on paralytics because they didn’t want him moving, so he was in an induced coma for four of the 12 days he was in the hospital; then they brought him out of it.
“He’s home now and seems like he’s going to make a full recovery. It just puts a perspective on everything in life. I wasn’t worried about losing races, because my boy’s life was saved, so when you’re looking at races, they’re not so important.
“But,” Knapp added with a chuckle, “now that’s he going to be OK, winning races is important again.”