Page 36 - NMHBA Spring 2021

“I love him and am proud of what the Lord is doing through him and the life he is leading and living today.” – Pat Day
Stover and Day met at Sportsman’s Park in the Spring of 1974. Of the early years of their friendship, Day says simply: “We were not living a very productive lifestyle.”
Day would overcome his own substance abuse problems and go on to a Hall of Fame career. The defining moment in his life spiritually occurred 37 years ago.
He won more than 8,800 races, including 12 Breeders Cup races and nine Triple Crown races, among them the 1992 Kentucky Derby aboard Lil E. Tee. He won the Preakness five times and the Belmont three times. He was awarded the sport’s highest riding honor, the Eclipse Award, four times.
He has consistently been up front about
his problems with drugs and alcohol and his conversion to a faith-based life. He shares details of his relationship with Stover over the years and the paths that brought them to where they are now.
“I came to Christ in January of 1984, and he was still running a bit wild,” says Day of that period in their lives. Their paths crossed impermanently over the next few years and then came that call to Hollywood Park in the early ‘90s.
After Don completed the Teen Challenge program, the two celebrated by taking doughnuts and coffee to some of the homeless on the streets of Los Angeles.
“We were rejoicing, and we had a chance to do some street ministry together,” said Day.
These days they share much more than a past. They share a mission and a message.
“There’s a
saying that there
is no waste in
God’s economy,”
said Day. “By that
I mean that because
of all the difficulties,
all the problems, the
lifestyle that he and I
were involved in, we can
relate to people who are
in that mix. Needless to say,
Donald and I spent our share of
time in the gutter. But now we’ve
seen the light. We were both renegades at one time, but have been saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Day, who retired in 2005 and turned
67 in October, has been president of the Kentucky Racetrack Chaplaincy Council for eight years. He lives in Louisville with his wife Sheila, who met Pat through a blind date set up by Stover.
Pat and Don stay connected through phone calls and the work they love. Their admiration for each other is genuine and unabashed.
“Pat Day is my best friend in the world,” says Stover.
“I love him and am proud of what the Lord is doing through him and the life he is leading and living today,” said Day.
And that old “Dumplin” nickname? It’s history.
“Today he calls me Pastor Pat,” said Day. “I call him Reverend Don.”
Pat Day & Reverend Don
“I’m a nobody trying to help somebody.”
34 New Mexico Horse Breeder