Shane Sellers hit rock bottom after he retired from horse racing in late 2004.

The 42-year-old Erath native will return to his roots when he saddles up Ide Ball for the first race at Evangeline Downs on Thursday.

“You have to have that passion,” said Sellers, who has won more than 4,000 races since his first win at age 16 in 1983. “I lost that passion. That’s the reason I walked away. By the grace of God and the support of my family and friends, I got that passion back.”

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Sellers began riding at age 11 and got his jockey’s license at age 16. He counts two Breeder’s Cup wins and an upset of two-time Horse of the Year Cigar in the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1996 aboard Skip Away as among his most memorable victories.

But Sellers is perhaps better known for his advocacy for better pay, health insurance and weight issues for jockeys. He also was among the first riders to wear advertising on his silks. Those fights were important to him, he said, but costly as well.

“I fought so many fights for riders,” said Sellers. “There was a point in time when baseball players, football players, hockey players all had to fight for what they wanted. Somebody had to be put to the forefront. That was me. I accepted it, and I was passionate about it.

“It wasn’t really about me. I could afford insurance. If I didn’t have endorsements, I was still able to make a good living.”

Jockeys now have insurance, less stringent weight requirements and endorsement deals because of the advocacy of Sellers and a few others like him. But the conflict cost him a Hall of Fame career, he believes. A serious knee injury in 2000 kept him out of racing for a year and a half, and after returning in 2002, he decided to retire after the 2004 racing season.

“When I walked away from the game, when I chose not to come back, I lost myself,” said Sellers. “I almost lost my family. I did lose them for a year. I went downhill. When I was at the bottom of the barrel, I wasn’t Shane Sellers the jockey, I didn’t have people who were around me.”

So he turned to God, praying not for a return to racing, or for wealth, but just to find himself. He found the answers he was looking for, and in the process found the passion to ride again.

“I just sat back and thought about the reasons why I quit, why I walked away,” said Sellers. “I felt I left a lot of years on the table. I really wasn’t ready to quit when I quit.”

Now living in Lafayette with his wife Kelli and children Shali Rae, Saban and Steiner, Sellers said he plans to race at Louisiana Downs and the Fairgrounds in New Orleans when the Evangeline Downs season ends.

He’ll start with a race on a horse trained by his old friend Mark Guidry, a former jockey. Guidry and longtime friend Nathan Granger, who was the owner of the horse Sellers rode to his first victory at Evangeline Downs, encouraged his return.

“I don’t think I would’ve gotten the response I did elsewhere,” said Sellers. “I just want to go out and enjoy the game.”