Michael Fetters, a jockey turned trainer who long was affiliated with Hall of Fame horseman Jack Van Berg, died July 24 in Bossier City, La., according to his wife, Betty Fetters. He was 71.   Michael Fetters, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the fall of 2021, made great strides in recovery and ultimately died of a staph infection, said Betty Fetters.   “He worked up until the last two or three weeks,” she said.   Michael Fetters was born in Enid, Okla., and had a riding career before turning to training. Betty Fetters said her husband told her he was a leading apprentice at a meet in Colorado. Michael Fetters rode for such trainers as Van Berg.   :: Bet the races with a $200 First Deposit Match and FREE Formulator PPs! Join DRF Bets. “Mike was a race rider until just before I met him, in 1972,” Fetters said. “We met in Nebraska, working for Van Berg. We got married there, and from there, we went everywhere.   “We’ve been together 49 years now, 48 years married.”   Betty Fetters said the couple’s daughter, Michal, was born in Detroit. She is a former jockey and is married to another retired rider, Sidney LeJeune, Jr. The couple has a 10-year-old son, Asher.   Michael Fetters eventually went out on his own as a trainer and won his first race at Louisiana Downs in 1983, according to records from Daily Racing Form. A memorable horse for the barn was Congo Passion, winner of the Southern Belle Stakes at Louisiana Downs then placed against males in the track’s Pelican Stakes.   “She won the filly stakes back then and came back two weeks later in the colts’ stakes,” Fetters recalled. “She hadn’t run all summer and was just aching to go. She was full of life.”   Betty Fetters, who is the longtime clocker at Louisiana Downs, said her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last October.   “He left here Oct. 8 last year going to Delta,” she said. “He goes down there every winter. He came home on Oct. 31, came in the door, and he was just skin and bones, 122 pounds. We got him to the hospital. He was doing really good. He worked here until the last couple of weeks.”   Fetters said her husband got an Australian shepherd puppy just before he died. The dog is named Blue.   “Everybody thought Mike was so tough, thought he was mean,” Fetters said. “He wasn’t. He was tough, but with animals he was the kindest man in the world. I’ve got five dogs at my house, four of them he brought in as rescues. He was always doing that, bringing animals home. Now he’s got his daughter doing the same thing!”   Betty Fetters said it’s been difficult to process the loss of her husband.   “I just can’t even imagine…,” she said.   Louisiana Downs has offered to conduct a memorial service for Michael Fetters, and that is something Betty Fetters said she might be able to handle toward the end of the meet in September.   “The racetrack was our family,” she said.