Del Mar Junior Miss Stakes : McCarron Wins Aboard Footy After Near-Miss and Visions of ’81 Spill

Remember Stop Dancing? Jockey Chris McCarron sure does.

It was the seventh race at Del Mar on Aug. 30, 1981: McCarron--aboard 8-5 favorite Stop Dancing--was crowded into the rail and fell near the 4 1/2-furlong pole.

McCarron was unseated and landed on the new Fontana slide rail which was installed at Del Mar earlier that season. Del Mar was the first track to put in this type of plastic rail with a trampoline effect.

“I was sure he (McCarron) was dead,” said a longtime track observer who was among the 18,550 at Del Mar Wednesday.

McCarron was reminded of Stop Dancing because he barely missed suffering another spill Wednesday when his horse, Tillie Tillie, was squeezed into the fence down the backstretch in the fourth race.

He didn’t fall in the fourth and rode winners in four other races, but his close call aboard Tillie Tillie left an impression.

“I had flashbacks to ‘That’s Incredible’,” said McCarron.

Film clips of his spill aboard Stop Dancing were shown on the television program “That’s Incredible.” Producers of the show also sent a stunt man and film crew to Del Mar to recreate McCarron’s spill.

“I don’t know how in the world my filly stayed up in the fourth race,” McCarron said. “The fence held her up. She was on top of the fence for two strides.”

Tillie Tillie finished 11th in a 12-horse race. There was a stewart’s inquiry after the race, but the results were unchanged.

McCarron still had a very successful day. Before his near miss, McCarron had ridden His Royalty to victory in the second race.

After finishing fifth aboard the favorite, Midnight Cocktail, in the fifth race, he won the sixth (aboard Savona Tower), seventh (aboard Bozina) and eighth--the featured $55,800 Junior Miss Stakes.

Riding Footy--a 5-2 shot and second choice behind the entry of Windy Triple K. and Brave Raj in the Junior Miss Stakes--McCarron forged to the front in the final sixteenth of the six-furlong race to overtake Evil Elaine.

Footy, owned by Cheery Valley Farm and trained by W.L. Proctor, paid $7.40, $3.80 and $3.40. Brave Raj, which beat Evil Elaine for second, paid $3 and $2.40. Evil Elaine paid $4.20.

“She (Footy) felt like her back feet slipped when she broke and got off slowly,” said McCarron, who is the leading money winner in the country with more than $7,000,000 through the first seven months of the year.

“Fortunately, the two horses in front of me split and I was able to move up between them. Otherwise, she would have gotten dirt in her face and might have gotten discouraged. At the top of the stretch, I thought Shoe’s horse (Evil Elaine, ridden by Bill Shoemaker) was going to pull away, but she must have been a little short and my filly came running again at the sixteenth pole.”

McCarron finished with four winners on six mounts. He is tied with Corey Black for second in the Del Mar jockey standings with 12 winners.