Sisterson back at barn three days after back surgery

Jack Sisterson said he’s “hobbling around like a 90-year-old man,” and yet there he was Thursday morning, looking after his horses at Keeneland, less than 72 hours after undergoing surgery for a herniated disc in his lower back Monday in a Lexington, Ky., hospital.

“I was having an awful pain going down my right leg,” said Sisterson, 35. “The doctor explained to me what he was going to do, and it must’ve worked. The pain relief was pretty instant.”

Sisterson said his afternoon absences during the five-day Keeneland meet, which ends Sunday, should have gone scarcely noticed. As a key assistant to Doug O’Neill during the glory years of Kentucky Derby winners I’ll Have Another and Nyquist, Sisterson was watching very intently when learning how to delegate from the top down.

“My staff is incredible,” he said. “I wish the program didn’t even carry my name. It just goes to show in a time like this, we’ve got things in place that these guys don’t really need me. Everyone does their job so well.”

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Sisterson, a native of England, began training on his own two summers ago with the Calumet Farm of Brad Kelley. His 32 wins from 249 starts include seven stakes, four of them graded, with perhaps the crack sprinter Lexitonian being his best horse to date.

His stable essentially is a private one for Calumet, with “an outside horse or two,” he said. Based primarily at the farm and Keeneland, his stable has become multi-tiered. This week alone, not only was he to be represented by four runners at Keeneland, but also one at Indiana Grand, plus Vexatious being cross-entered in the Ruffian at Belmont and the Delaware Handicap.

“I’ll be sending a string to Saratoga and we’ll probably run some out at Del Mar,” he said.

Clearly, this recent surgery may have slowed him down personally, but the stable continues to tick over. He said he must have injured his back last fall, when he went over a fence in pursuit of a horse who had gotten loose on the Keeneland training track, “or maybe it was an old soccer injury,” referring to his college career at the University of Louisville and with club teams.

“Pretty soon it’ll be as if this never happened,” he said. “My thoughts go out to people who are in a lot worse shape than I am during this difficult time.”