McCarron, Christopher
Horse Racing
b. March 27, 1955, Boston, MA
After working as a groom and horse walker, McCarron began riding in 1974 and got his first victory in March. Racing mostly at Bowie Race Track in Maryland and Penn National in Pennsylvania, he set records for both winners, with 547, and mounts, with 2,199, in 1974. He won the Eclipse Award as the best jockey of the year.
McCarron led in victories again with 648 in 1975, but didn't really come into his own until he 1977, when he began riding against better competition at Hollywood Park. Accepting fewer mounts but riding in more prestigious races, McCarron led in victories with 405 and money won with $7,663,300 to claim his second Eclipse Award.
He was the top money winner again in 1981, with $8,397,604; 1984, with $12,045,813; and 1991, with $14,456,073. In 1983, he became the youngest jockey ever to achieve both $50 million in career earnings and more than 3,000 career wins.
McCarron has had two victories in each of the Triple Crown races. His first came in 1986, when he rode Danzig Connection to a victory in the Belmont Stakes. The following year, he captured the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness with Alysheba, who won the Eclipse Award as three-year-old of the year.
He also won the 1992 Preakness with Pine Bluff, the 1994 Kentucky Derby with Go for Gin, and the 1997 Belmont with Touch Gold.
In Breeders' Cup winnings, McCarron ranks second to Pat Day among jockeys. He has ridden nine Breeders' Cup winners including five in the Classic: Alysheba in 1988, Sunday Silence in 1989, Alphabet Soup in 1996, and Tiznow in both 2000 and 2001.
Through 2003, McCarron ranks sixth all-time with 7,139 wins and third in earnings with $264,380,651.