After kidney failure, 'Flying Filipino' jockey soon back in Aussie racetracks

It has been two years since the "Flying Filipino," jockey Marlon Dolendo, was diagnosed with kidney failure and he is raring to go back on track — both in the Australian horseracing circuit and in life.   Dolendo is eager to ride his horse’s back again after enduring months of dialysis and a kidney transplant that saved his life.   “I’m back to riding races by March. I feel much better now and I cannot wait to ride a winner soon,” he told “magPinoy” of the news site The Filipino Australian.   In a separate interview with Australia’s The Daily Telegraph last December, Dolendo revealed that he found out about his condition after a race in Port Macquarie, where he “rode a winner but didn’t even have the strength to pull my horse up over the line.”   “I could have killed myself or someone else. I had no idea how crook I was,” he said, adding that he got the news when the doctor called him at home later that night to tell him that his kidneys were less than 10 percent functional. “I was told to get straight to hospital that night or I’m gone.” Dolendo—who only rode on water buffalos (carabao) as a kid—has been making waves in the Australian horseracing circuit since he started out in the early 1990s.   According to The Daily Telegraph, he “has ridden almost 1,500 winners over 20- years at tracks around the state.”   Support   Dolendo’s success in the race track has been providing for his wife and three children, who were all then under the age of 15. His absence in races—aggravated by the expenses of having dialysis four times a week—entailed financial constraint.   This was when the Australian racing industry rallied behind him, with a golf day at Port Macquarie and an auction dinner hosted by television personality Richard Callander.   These efforts raised $43,000 for Dolendo and his family. The money was put into a trust account by his mate Garry Giles, who “was put in charge of paying the bills,” and it sustained the Dolendos for 12 months.   Also, Racing New South Wales (NSW) paid for the family’s $400-a-week rent and groceries.   Perhaps the greatest help Dolendo received through this struggle was the gift of a second lease in life, courtesy of his 35-year-old sister, Marie, who offered one of her kidneys for the transplant.   Dolendo told The Daily Telegraph that he couldn’t ask Marie for this life-changing favor, given that “she’s a single mum to two beautiful little kids of her own.” The operation, he said, would “cost her lots of money” since she wouldn’t be able to “work for a couple of months.”   Both of them got through the transplant and Dolendo is persistent to give back to Marie.   “I want to ride again so I can pay her back. That’s important to me. She’s given me everything,” he said.    Down and up   Admittedly, this crucial part of his life led Negros-born rider to depression, especially because racing was “his only way to support the family.”   “I thought I was finished. My first doctor told me so. I couldn’t cope,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “My specialist suggested I go and do a university course or get a job in the office. I said to him: ‘I’m not as smart as you are, mate.’”   Dolendo shared how he “felt useless” knowing that all he only knew how to fish and ride, the latter being his occupation for two decades.   “My temper and moods were bad. I’d blow up at little things. It got worse and worse,” he said. “I’d get up in the middle of the night and drive my car up to the Pacific Highway. It was pitch black and I’d walk along the side of the road for kilometers, hoping a truck would hit me.”   “Every night I’d cry. I’d scream at my kids. I went crazy,” he added.   But that’s a bad patch of the past now for the Filipino, who applied late last year at Racing NSW as a stablehand.   Last December, The Daily Telegraph went with Dolendo to the stables of his trainer, Neil Godbolt, where he jumped on a horse again after being absent for months.   “I felt pretty sore afterwards,” he said. “It’s still pretty tender where the operation was, but my aim is to be fully fit and riding in races again by February. I know I can do it.”   Godbolt, who has also become a friend to the Filipino, said he is not rushing the latter.   “The only thing that concerns me is Marlon pushing it too quick. He’ll need six weeks work around the stables and a couple of barrier trials,” he said. “When he’s ready for his first meeting, we’ll be putting him on something that’s a good hope, that’s for sure.” - VVP, GMA News