Chris McCarron

Bowie Race Course in Prince George’s county in Maryland is a long way from California, but that’s the location Chris McCarron got his start through New England trainer Odie Clelland. Chris finished last with his first mount but broke his maiden with his first winner on February 9, 1974.

Born in Dorchester, Mass., on March 27, 1955, Chris was introduced to racing by his older brother Gregg. It didn’t take him long to get the feel of riding. In his first year he lead the nation in races won with 546 wins, a record that stood for 15 years and still stands as the watermark for apprentices. He came back the next season to again lead the country with 468 wins. It took him another 5 years but he three-peated, with 405 tallies.

When he moved his tack to California permanently in 1978, things really took off. He won the Oak Tree title in 1979. He won the Hollywood Park and Del Mar titles the next year. In fact he dominated in Inglewood throughout the early 80s.

The 90s were also kind. He won his 400th Oak Tree race October 5 of ’95 aboard the John Sadler trainee Milda. Just 16 days later he won his 50th Oak Tree stakes in the first running of the California Stallion Stakes aboard General Idea.

Chris won the Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) with Alysheba (1987) and Go for Gin (1994). He took the Preakness S. (Gr.1) with Pine Bluff and Alysheba and the Belmont S. (Gr.1) with Danzig Connection (1986).

McCarron won five Breeders’ Cup Classic (Gr.1) races with Alysheba (1988), Sunday Silence (1989), Alphabet Soup (1996) and two editions with Tiznow (2000 - 2001). He was aboard Precisionist (1985) for his BC Sprint (Gr.1) win, got Gilded Time home in front in 1992 in the Juvenile and was aloft Paseana for her BC Distaff (Gr.1) tally in 1992. He also guided Northern Spur to victory in the 1998 BC Turf (Gr.1).

His awards keep stacking up. He won the Eclipse as leading apprentice, of course, 1974 and another Eclipse as top rider in 1980. He won the George Woolf Memorial Award the same year and added the Mike Venezia Award in 1991.

Chris won the Kentucky Oaks (Gr.1) with Sweet Alliance in 1977 and Seaside Attraction in 1990. He won the Santa Anita Derby (Gr.1) in 1991 with Dinard, the Woodward (Gr.1) with Precisonist in 1986 and the Widener (Gr.1) the same year with Turkoman.

The great John Henry and McCarron teamed for some big wins including the Hollywood Turf Cup Handicap (Gr.1) of 1983, and the Hollywood Turf Handicap (Gr.1), Turf Classic (Gr.1) and Arlington Million (Gr.1) of 1984.

He was the national leader in money won in 1980, 1981, 1984 and 1991. In 1988 he became the first rider to win 5 Usd 1-million races in a year and he ended up with 16 Grade 1 wins. The same year he became the youngest jockey at 33 to surpass Usd 100 million in purse winnings. The next year he became the youngest to reach the 5,000-win plateau when he guided I Sure Hope So to victory. Less than 5 years later, he made in 6,000 when Andestine won the Milady Handicap (Gr.1) at Hollywood Park.

Going into the 2000 meeting at Hollywood Park, Chris was closing in on 7,000 winner and was less than 200 victories away.

One of his greatest achievements came of the track. In 1987, with the help of comedian Tim Conway, Chris established the Don MacBeth Memorial Fund for disabled jockeys.

Known as a ‘thinking man’s’ jockey, McCarron seldom makes an error in a big race. He’s a master of pace and rides the good horses as well as anybody in the country.

Over 20 years, when I was a fledgling in the newspaper business, I was leaving Hollywood Park one night after the races. Chris was in the car ahead of me and although I didn’t know him personally I waved as we started to pull out onto the Prairie Blvd. Though he was ahead of me in traffic, he waited, slowed down, came beside me and informed me one of my headlights didn’t work.

 
Awards and Achievements

* Leading money-winning jockey,1980-81, 1984 and 1991
* Eclipse Award, Apprentice Jockey, 1974
* Eclipse Award 1980
* George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award 1980
* Mike Venezia Award 1991
* Youngest jockey to win Usd 100 million

The hard work was over. Now, with the 128th Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) waiting just around the corner, it was a matter of keeping the colt calm and focused. Came Home's breeze the day before had been perfect, as smooth as silk, and at the crack of dawn the next day, trainer Paco Gonzalez had him tacked up and ready to stretch his legs. As the dark bay made his way out to the track, amid the morning buzz of the Derby backstretch, there was no mistaking the legend on his back. The yellow flak jacket was a dead giveaway.

"The fact that he took Came Home out the day after his work for a jog in Kentucky blew my mind," recalled owner, breeder, and loyal Chris McCarron admirer Trudy McCaffery. "You know, anybody could have got on him, but no--there was Chris, six o'clock in the morning. I mean, the horse was just going to go for a little jog and there he was. But this is what Chris is. These are the things that Chris does that make him such a special person."

And these are the things the game will deeply miss following McCarron's retirement from racing the afternoon of June 23. The news was positively shocking when the 47-year-old McCarron announced his decision just eight days earlier, but nobody, from fan to family, could blame him. The reason was simple. The reason was legitimate. Chris McCarron had finally grown tired.

"We're all gonna have to step down, you know," said friend and fellow jockey Eddie Delahoussaye. "Laffit will one day. Shoe done it; Longden, everybody. Arcaro done it. It's part of life. You can't ride forever. But the thing is, you still wanna leave with your head up in the air and have people respect you, and that's one thing Chris McCarron will have--people that respect him. And that's worth more than him being leading rider or in the Hall of Fame or anything."

"No one's ever even been close to his success level in the history of the game," remarked Dr. Wayne Gertmenian, president of the Jockeys' Guild. "And the other thing that's interesting is that except for Eddie Arcaro, I don't think anybody's ever retired at the top before. He's still at the top of the game."

Indeed, when McCarron finally walked away, he had won 7,141 races. Only five other riders can lay claim to having won more. And no jockey in history has ever earned more purse money than McCarron, his career mounts amassing more than Usd 264 million.

But there was so much more to McCarron than his gift between the rails. He is a guy who punched the clock day in and day out, constantly honing his skill and riding hard for the Usd 2 bettor. To his fellow jockeys, he was both role model and fierce competitor. His integrity, compassion, horseman ship, and dedication to the industry have long been venerated, hallmarks of a career that will go down as one of the game's all-time finest. For nearly three decades, no one has epitomized the sport quite like Chris McCarron.

Interestingly, the nine McCarron children were never even exposed to horses in their Boston youth, so there was no real reason to think Christopher John would ever pursue a life in racing. The fact was, young Chris was a hockey nut. Pictures of the great Bobby Orr bedecked his bedroom. It wasn't until high school, in fact, when older brother Gregg began riding competitively, that the sport caught McCarron's eye. He followed his brother's career closely, intrigued by the combination of fast horses and big money. His dreams of becoming a hockey star long gone, McCarron eventually opted to follow in Gregg's footsteps.

After cutting his teeth under the auspices of trainer Odie Clelland, McCarron was hoisted aboard his very first mount, a gelding named Most Active, on Jan. 24, 1974. They promptly finished last--a bad last. By year's end, however, Chris McCarron was a household name. When he won his 516th race that year, at the expense of his brother, Gregg, who finished second by a nose, he set a world record for winners in one year. The 546 winners he had at the year's end were more than enough to earn the 19-year-old an Eclipse Award as the nation's top apprentice jockey.

So dominant on the Maryland circuit was McCarron, in fact, that the temptation to take a crack at the big leagues soon became inescapable. The year was 1978. McCarron headed to California.

Over the next quarter-century, the achievements gradually piled high. A second Eclipse in 1980. A slew of big-time wins on John Henry. Kentucky Derby (Gr.1) and Preakness (Gr.1) victories with Alysheba. The Hall of Fame in 1989. Another Derby with Go for Gin, another Preakness with Pine Bluff. Nine Breeders' Cup victories, two Belmonts (Gr.1), countless riding titles throughout Southern California and an endless stream of stakes winners.

And with his success came unparalleled admiration. Gertmenian remembers standing in a Belmont shedrow with trainer Allen Jerkens last fall. Eventually, McCarron wandered past, and Jerkens unexpectedly broke the conversation with a single number: "Ten."

A bit baffled, Gertmenian asked logically. "Ten what?"

"Ten, ten lengths," came the reply. "There are jockeys out there who can get you five," Jerkens said.

"But he's the only jockey that ever lived that could get you 10 extra lengths."

Riding a Thoroughbred has been adjudged one of the most difficult and dangerous tasks in all of sports. McCarron, in fact, will be the first to tell you that the horses do all the work, that the job more or less is to stay out of their way. But if the outcome of a race is dependent upon split-second decision-making from the saddle--and it so often is--then consider McCarron's innate focus and flawless timing the ultimate edge.

The evidence is convincing. His masterful ride on Touch Gold in the 1997 Belmont, which kept Silver Charm from the Triple Crown, is still talked about. Of his five Breeders' Cup Classic (Gr.1) victories, Alysheba won by the largest margin--a half-length. And McCarron still gets a kick watching replays of the 1985 Charles H. Strub Stakes (Gr.1), when he and Precisionist held off two idols named Shoemaker and Pincay.

There were great moments with Best Pal and Bien Bien, Free House and Flying Paster, Riboletta, Glorious Song, and Sweet Alliance. Champions Flawlessly and Paseana were "cut from the same cloth," according to McCarron. "They were gems, never did anything wrong." McCarron even made the most of limited opportunities aboard standouts including Bayakoa, Sunday Silence, Criminal Type, Lady's Secret, and Lemhi Gold. All were champions themselves. All, at some point or another, won major races with McCarron in the saddle.

"It's very difficult to say who was absolutely, sheerly the most talented," McCarron said when asked the inevitable. "I don't think we ever saw how good Alysheba was. He was always doing that 70-80% stuff with me. Tiznow was very much the same way. I'm inclined to say the out-and-out fastest horse I ever rode was Precisionist. He was a horse that wanted to win so badly. He did everything he possibly could to win every time he ran. John Henry, though, was really, really something special."

Not all were entirely kind, however, and the thought of retirement was made real on a couple of occasions. A 1986 accident at Santa Anita left McCarron with a fractured femur. Things were much worse at Hollywood Park in 1990, when a terrible spill resulted in another broken femur, a fractured ulna and tibia, and serious concerns about his future. But when external doubts began to surface, hushed rumors that his days were indeed numbered, McCarron's competitive zeal hit overdrive.

"It really pissed me off," he remembered. "You talk about throwing fuel on my fire. 'Is retirement imminent?'...'Is Chris going to hang it up now?' ...I thought, 'No way. That ain't gonna stop me.' "

The passion, however, like that of many a great athlete, has ineluctably died out. McCarron, in fact, pinpoints the root of his dimmed passion to the day after this year's Kentucky Derby, when he feigned illness and took off his Hollywood Park mounts. Ordinarily, the resultant guilt of missed commitments would have ruined the rest of his day. This time, those feelings were absent.

"That day it was different, and I could feel the flame diminishing," he admitted. "Every athlete goes through periods in his career where they're kind of tired of what they're doing, but it's temporary most of the time. At the time I was baffled, and it was only after several weeks went by that I realized it was a sign--a sign that it was time."

McCarron also concedes that there is trepidation about a future without riding. Yet he is a man of positive thinking and forward progress, and with plenty of opportunities already demanding his attention, his retirement is perhaps best viewed as a transition. His work with the Jockeys' Guild is an obvious priority, as is the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund, a charity organization for disabled riders he co-founded with both his wife, Judy, and actor Tim Conway. Additionally, director Gary Ross has offered McCarron the role of Charlie Kurtsinger, the jockey of War Admiral, in the upcoming film depicting the life of Seabiscuit.

There are other possibilities, too.

"Somewhere down the road I think I'd enjoy fooling around with some horses," McCarron said. "I also want to try to develop a business model for a jockeys' school. It's something that this country drastically needs. Every other country that has racing around the globe has a jockeys' school. England, Ireland, Japan, all over South America, France. Places as small as Panama. Those jocks have to go through a rigorous program before they can gain a license. In this country, you gallop horses for six months, go to the starting gate, break a couple horses, and don't fall off, and BANG! You get a license. You talk about an accident waiting to happen. That's one thing I've thought a lot about for a long time. I've got some ideas as far as that goes."

Jim McAlpine, President and CEO of Magna Entertainment Corp. and Jack Liebau, President of MEC's California Operations, were pleased to announce at May, 2003, the appointment of Chris McCarron as Vice President and General Manager of Santa Anita Park.

McCaffery, for one, feels McCarron will succeed regardless the direction of his focus.

"Anything Chris does he gives 100% to the issue," she remarked. "He's so well-rounded."

That, of course, traces directly to his youth, when all the McCarron siblings were taught the importance of education and allowed to spread their wings. When McCarron stood before an eager group of sixth graders recently, entertaining the class with funny tales and exciting memories, he imparted the same advice. Reach out, he told them, and aim high.

"I'm a true believer that everybody is born with an ability to excel at something," he said. "Everybody has a talent to be really, really good at something, whether it be drawing, singing, kicking a football, or whatever it might be. But it's the lucky people that actually find out, they discover what that talent is."

For the past 28 years, Chris McCarron has displayed his, and horse racing is a stronger sport because of it.
 

 

Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron will retire Sunday, and while he's leaving at the top of his profession, the 47-year-old rider is convinced the time is right.

“I know one thing — I won't have any regrets,” said McCarron, whose final ride will be aboard Came Home in the $100,000-added Affirmed Handicap at Hollywood Park. “I'm very pleased I made this decision, I don't have any qualms about it.”

“I'm very, very proud of the things I've been able to accomplish,” he said. “I'm in very good health, I feel terrific. I'm very pleased that I can go ahead and make a decision like this and retire on my own terms.”

McCarron said he decided to retire when he realized he was losing his desire.

“My enthusiasm for my job was beginning to wane,” he said. “The precise reason was I convinced myself several years ago that when that happened, I was going to call it quits."

“If I'm going to be compromised because of my attitude and enthusiasm, it's time to move on."

McCarron said he needs a rest, and that's the first thing he has planned.

“I really am tired,” he said. “I'm mentally tired, not physically. I'm going to take a month or two off, get the fog out of my head and figure out what I'll be doing.”

McCarron has been very active with the Jockeys' Guild, and said he'll continue his involvement.

He named John Henry, Alysheba and Tiznow as the top horses he's ridden. All won Horse of the Year honors.

"John Henry, I was fortunate to ride him in the last 14 starts of his career,” McCarron said. “That horse had such a wonderful following, he raced until he was 9 years old. He brought a lot of attention to Chris McCarron."

“Alysheba put me over the hump in terms of winning the Kentucky Derby. Tiznow proved to the world that at 46 and 47 years old, Chris McCarron can still get the job done in a high-pressure situation.”

McCarron rode Tiznow to victory in each of the last two Breeders' Cup Classics.

“Those three horses were outstanding, I have a great debt of gratitude to them,” McCarron said.

From a human standpoint, McCarron singled out Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay Jr., and his brother, Gregg.

Shoemaker was thoroughbred racing's all-time leading winner before Pincay passed him on Dec. 10, 1999, and Gregg McCarron, who retired as a jockey nine years ago, introduced his brother to racing.

“Bill Shoemaker was the epitome of a professional,” McCarron said. “All you've got to do is follow Shoe and you couldn't go wrong, he was on such an even keel.”

McCarron called Pincay “the most incredible athlete I've ever seen,” and said his brother served as a teacher and role model.