Dan Hennessey has no idea how he avoided an accident and pulled off the highway safely. The trainer just remembers the panic setting in as he sat along the road alone, frightened and suddenly completely blind somewhere in the middle of North Carolina about 500 miles from his home in Coconut Creek, FL.

“It was pretty rough. I can tell you that. There was a lot of emotion because I didn’t know what it was,” Hennessey said.

It was late October of 2014, about a week before Hennessey’s 60th birthday. The trainer was making his annual trek back to Pompano Park after a summer racing at Saratoga Harness when he lost sight in his right – and only working – eye.