Veteran driver Ricky May (63) will on Sunday return to the scene were he nearly died.
Two years ago he collapsed while driving A G’s White Socks in the Central Otago Cup at the Omakau meeting.
Distraught fans watched on as the slumped figure of May tumbled from his sulky.
He lay prone on the track as officials rushed to assist, including fellow driver Ellie Barron who performed CPR before he was flown to Dunedin Hospital.
May had planned on making his return earlier this year but heavy rain forced the cancellation of the meeting.
"It has been two years since it happened so I’m looking forward to getting back there," he said.
May has no memory of the 2020 incident. His heart had stopped beating for eight minutes before he was revived on the track.
Incredibly, he was back racing within six months, and in July this year he drove his 3000th winner, at a meeting in Addington, Christchurch.
He was just the third driver to achieve the milestone after Tony Herlihy and Maurice McKendry.
May was diagnosed with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy.
It is a condition which makes it hard for the heart to pump blood.
That is why his heart stopped that day.
"Most people die of it," May told the Otago Daily Times a year ago.
"They say only 5% of people live from it. But I was extremely lucky it happened where it did.
"I was surrounded by all these great people who kept me alive."
That is why May is so keen to return — to repay all the great people and help the club.
"I ruined their meeting," he said.
"Now they’ve had two meetings ruined in a row."
He has four drives at Omakau, beginning with a horse called Streaming Live in race 2.
There is a touch of black humour in the name.
"Streaming Live — not too bad is it," he said with a chuckle.
It is certainly better than the alternative.
— Additional reporting Steve Hepburn
