Chris McCarron is one of the most successful and recognizable figures in the sport. He appears this week as the guest on Ferrin Peterson's Boundless podcast.
McCarron tells Peterson of how he got off to a fast start in Maryland.
In 1974, his first year of riding, McCarron set a record of 546 races, earning the Eclipse Award as the top apprentice jockey in the country.
“I was young and dumb and all I was doing was having fun,” he said. “I really didn't know a great deal about what I was doing out there, but because I was riding so often, I was able to learn quite quickly.”
McCarron tells Peterson about the additional things he learned along the way, like establishing trust with his horses, how to talk to trainers and having respect for his horses.
He tells the story of one particularly difficult morning on Tiznow. “He was tricky to ride only in the mornings. Very straightforward in the afternoons. He could run all day. Fast. But in the mornings, he could be a little obstreperous.” On a morning before the 2001 Breeders' Cup, it took him 40 minutes to get Tiznow to go to the gate for a work. McCarron recalls the event in detail to Peterson.
He moved to California in 1974, where he would ride until he retired in 2011, with 7,141 wins and over $260 million in earnings. He won each Triple Crown race twice, and won nine Breeders' Cup races, including five Classics.
It is available on Apple podcasts, here, or on Spotify, here or on YouTube, below.
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
