Sunday, June 30, 2002
Biles' life jumps back on track
Illness, homelessness and divorce didn't soften jockey's rock-solid resolve
By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[stadium]](http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/06/30/biles_150x200.jpg)
Steve Biles stands beside the start gate at River Downs Saturday June 22, 2002. Biles is a jockey making a comeback after 8 years.
(Brandi Stafford photo)
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Steve Biles couldn't make the room stop spinning. It moved faster every time he opened his eyes. So he closed them and went back to sleep.
The year was 1994, and Biles lay in a Chicago hospital bed without a balance nerve in his brain. The nerve had to be cut to remove a benign tumor, but the surgery left him unable to walk and deaf in his left ear. His ability to do the only two things he really loved — ride horses and care for his three boys — was jeopardized.
But in just eight years, Biles not only can walk and care for his kids again, he is racing horses. In between, Biles has gone from the brain tumor to shingles. He has lived in horse stalls and a homeless center. He has lost and regained his own children during a continuing custody battle, and helped save another child from a fire.
On June 21, Biles restarted his racing career for the first time since '94 when he rode Happy Acres at River Downs. The horse finished 11th, but it ended Biles' eight years of frustration.
“I never really gave up the thought of racing,” Biles said. “I had to get my life back in order first. I guess horse racing is in my blood.”
Rough road ahead
Biles' interest in horse racing began when he was 13. His father bet at the track and took him along. There, Robert Biles met several trainers and set up his son with jobs at stables until Steve graduated from Springfield North High School in 1980.
Biles worked at River Downs after he graduated and did just about everything but race. He made enough of a name for himself that he was offered a chance to ride at Delaware Park in 1981.
But Biles never made it to Delaware. In fact, it was eight years before he raced.
Biles had just married Shara Norman, who was pregnant with their first child. Rather than live from racetrack to racetrack, Biles enlisted in the Army. Three children, four stations and eight years later, he finally realized his dream.
Biles got a regular job racing at Chicago's Balmoral Park in 1989. But the marriage was failing, and he and his wife divorced in June. She took the kids back to Springfield, and Biles left for Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky., where he rode his first winner, Cojack Pass.
In December, Norman dropped off the children at Turfway to stay with Biles for the weekend. Later, Biles would regained custody of the children.
“My racing career kind of took second place for four years,” Biles said.
Actually, it went on hold longer than that. Biles was married to his second wife in 1992 when doctors told him he had “ear colds.” They came, they went.
“Forty or 50 times,” Biles said. “No one knew what was wrong with me.”
Doctors discovered the tumor in February 1994. Biles returned the kids to his first wife and underwent surgery in October.
Biles was a mess for the next five years. He struggled to hold a job hotwalking horses at Turfway and got sick on several occasions. His marriage fell apart soon after the surgery.
By the winter of 1999, Biles had come down with shingles and pneumonia. Biles was walking horses at Turfway, using them for balance as he learned to walk again. Meanwhile, he lived in stalls at River Downs or Turfway and on friends' couches.
Carol Coe, who runs the God's Home for Families in Dayton, Ky., took Biles in at her homeless shelter.
“The chaplain at Turfway called and said: "This guy is so sick, I think he's going to die. Is there any way you can take him in?'” Coe said. “They had life squads there, and I walked up and asked Steve what I could do for him. He said, "Rescue my kids.' Well, that's not the response you expect from someone in that position.”
Burning, itching, blisters, intense pain and fatigue — those are the symptoms of shingles, called the adult chicken pox. The odds of infection go up if you've had cancer treatment or a recent illness.
Biles functioned normally on good days, but the shingles came and went for a year, keeping him in bed for days at a time. When he felt up to it, he liked to do chores around the shelter.
“I wanted to give something back,” Biles said.
On April 5, 1999, he did.
Biles went outside to help Coe carry in groceries. They heard an explosion. Seconds later, Coe said, she saw a “ball of fire” running out of the house across the street.
It was a 3-year-old boy. He had been in the basement with his parents, who were draining gasoline from a motorcycle when it burst into flames.
“I just yelled, "Steve!' when I saw it,” Coe said. “The next thing I know, he's ripping his shirt off and running over to the boy.”
Biles got to the boy first and began patting down the boy's clothing. Others soon came over to help, before emergency crews arrived.
“I could tell by his face he was scared,” Biles said. “I said, "It's OK, help is on the way.' His skin had peeled on his face, and his face was just in shock. Then he took one breath and relaxed.”
Emergency squads came to the scene within minutes and rushed the boy to the hospital. He survived, despite burns on 96 percent of his body.
Biles was honored with a ceremonial key to the city of Dayton.
“Here he is, this little 5-foot man with shingles that we're supposed to be taking care of,” Coe said. “And he ends up saving a kid and getting a key to the city.”
Turning it around
Biles eventually recovered from the shingles, after a little more than a year of rest at God's Home. He got a job at River Downs as a hotwalker and moved into his own apartment.
Coe officially adopted Biles so he would have family support in his battle to regain custody of his children. Biles' father drowned in 1985, and his mother died of cancer three years later. Biles has never been close to any of his half-siblings.
“Steve has so much going on that he can't be everywhere at once,” Coe said. “He needed someone to help him.”
Coe's connections to religious and civic leaders enabled her to put the right people in touch with Biles. Squire Parsons, a gospel singer from West Virginia, visited Coe on Feb.24, 2001, when he was in town for a concert.
Biles and Parsons sat in Coe's living room and discussed Biles' career goals and the custody battle:
BILES: “If I was a sports star, they couldn't do this to me.”
PARSONS: “But you are, Steve.”
BILES: “But I can't ride horses anymore.”
PARSONS: “No, you can't.” And he pointed upward and said, “But He can.”
Since that moment, Coe said, Biles has been driven to get back into riding.
Biles, who is 40, progressed from hotwalking to exercising horses, once the trainers noticed he no longer was limping or drifting when he walked.
“I would put my arms all the way down (the reins) and just hold on,” Biles said.
A year of doing that gave Biles the strength to race.
Physically, Biles has fully recovered, except for deafness in his left ear. He doesn't know when his next race will be, but he would like it to be aboard Happy Acres, to help him become a better race horse.
“This is really about the horses,” Biles said. “Improving them. I like to ride, but I really enjoy it when I can take a horse and make it better.
“I can do that now.”
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![[stadium]](http://enquirer.com/editions/2002/06/30/biles_zoom.jpg)
Biles' life jumps back on track
