Roger Sofer’s voice echoes through the phone.
Tired and frayed.
Proud, strong and defiant.
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to get through this,” said Sofer, a 70-year-old Houston resident. “I know a lot of guys say that. But that’s where my head is. And then we’ll just see if we get lucky with the almighty and with medicine and everything else.”
Sofer doesn’t state the above because of the obvious: This is the time of the coronavirus.
And thanks to the America-on-pause chaos created by the COVID-19 pandemic, Sofer has no idea when his horse is going to race in the 146th Kentucky Derby, which was supposed to be run May 2, has already been rescheduled to September 5 and could be postponed even longer, if the sports world remains frozen.
Sofer’s voice sounds proud and tired, strong and frayed, because he is trying to stay alive. The financial planner is fighting off a rare form of leukemia, undergoing treatments seven days a week at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The coronavirus got in the way of Tiz the Law, the three-year-old colt that Sofer partly owns, winning this year’s Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May.
Leukemia is getting in the way of everything that Sofer loves about life.
“My goal is that I’m going to beat the son of a (bleep) to death,” Sofer said. “They picked on the wrong (bleep) guy.”
Watching his dream
The NBA, MLB and NHL seasons had already been postponed. The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments had already been canceled.
But the Florida Derby was still run on Saturday, March 28 — without fans in the Gulfstream Park stands — and Tiz the Law delivered Sofer a dream.
He fell in love with horse racing during summers at Saratoga more than a decade ago. A long weekend became two weeks. Two weeks became even longer.
“I love seeing (the horses) in the morning,” Sofer said. “I love just being around them. They’re so intelligent. They’re equine athletes and they love to run.”
There was a Belmont Stakes appearance with a previous horse during a previous partnership, when Sofer was crossing paths with Texans founder and former owner Bob McNair. But after Tiz the Law — owned by Sackatoga Stable, which produced 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Funny Cide — ran away with first place in the Florida Derby, Sofer was set to have his first horse in the most famous horse race in the world.
Pride.
Strength.
“It was just the explosion of everything,” he said. “I don’t know if it was Anderson and leukemia, or that we won the race. I was really pumped.”
He watched the inspiration on a TV in his Houston house with his wife, Linden.
When her name is mentioned again at the end of the interview, Sofer pauses, cries, starts to speak, then pauses again.
“She’s beyond spectacular,” he said. “She’s the biggest reason I’m going to get through this. I couldn’t get through this, at all, without her.”
Sofer was released from the hospital in time to view the Florida Derby from afar. But he was soon forced to return to MD Anderson, after his numbers spiked again and further treatment was necessary.
“I went from really over the top, over the moon — ‘I’ve got a Derby horse. Can you believe this? Holy (bleep),’ ” Sofer said. “And then I’m in intensive care.”
A sudden change
Sofer says it several times. Earnest and sincere.
He’s not being overdramatic. He knows there are huge, world-changing things going on in the world right now. He truly sees and gets all that.
But we all have our personal, individual views and this is Sofer’s: He took care of himself.
Weighed the same for 30 years. Exercised at least five days a week and worked out with the same trainer. Intentionally stuck to a healthy diet and avoided fried foods.
In mid-March, Sofer woke up with a rash. He eventually took a blood test. The results: “Scary, off the board.”
“I went basically from a skin rash to an acute, extreme form of leukemia overnight,” Sofer said. “Anderson told me that they see an average of five patients a year with what I have.”
He started treatments three days a week. Then five. Then all seven.
“At this point, there’s no cure for what I have,” Sofer said. “That’s what they told me.”
He’s still working.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sofer said. “They’re still stuck with me.”
Still cracking jokes.
“If you didn’t know better, you’d think it’s the same old stupid Roger, just carrying on,” he said.
And when Sofer wins this life race, thanks to the help of others, he insists that he’s taking his doctor to watch Tiz the Law in the Kentucky Derby — after the coronavirus is contained.
“I’m so happy I’m not in the hospital,” Sofer said this week, after he had been released from MD Anderson again.
A competitive spirit
Just the mention of finally having a Kentucky Derby horse lifts Sofer.
No one knows when our world will return to normal.
No one knows when live sports will resume. Or if the 146th Derby really will be run on September 5, more than four months after it was originally supposed to be held.
But discussing the speed, power and beauty of Tiz the Law creates a personal light.
“It’s something to talk about other than, ‘What treatment did you take today?’ ‘Do you feel like (bleep)?’ ‘Is your hair falling out?’ ” Sofer said. “All the questions that people ask or don’t want to ask. It helps to take my mind off.”
His competitive pride streams through the phone.
“Sure, you’d like (the horse) to run the first week in May, because we’re ready,” Sofer said. “They all have to play catchup on us. We’re ready.”
He again thanks his wife.
He again praises the hospital and its medical staff.
It’s amazing, Sofer says, how clear and strong his mind feels at this unprecedented moment in time.
“They want me to run through a brick wall, I will do it,” Sofer said.
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