Straight making progress in battle to walk again

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Jockey Michael Straight, paralyzed in a riding accident at Arlington Park in 2009, is learning how to walk again with the help of ReWalk, a bionic walking-assistance system that uses leg attachments powered by a backpack battery.

Straight, a 29-year-old Saratoga native, has taken as many as 21 steps by himself at one time with the aid of this machine, which he first started learning how to use last summer.

He uses the machine during physical-therapy sessions in Florida, where he now resides. The hope is that someday soon he will be able to take the machine home and use it by himself.

“It’s amazing to look down and see one foot in front of the other,” Straight said Monday at Saratoga, where the fifth race was named in his honor and a video of him walking with the machine was shown on in-house monitors.

The cost of the machine is $87,000, according to Straight and Rita Santos, a friend of Straight who works for doctors in Florida who have helped Straight in his quest to walk again.

Anyone interested in learning more about Straight’s progress can reach out to him on his Facebook page.

The racing office advises that the Bolton Landing Stakes on Aug. 19 and Schenectady Stakes on Aug. 21 – 5 1/2-furlong turf races for females and males, respectively – are not restricted to New York-breds, as has previously been stated. Nominations to those races close Saturday.