Quiet Efficiency Is a Trademark of McCarron

The 1987 Kentucky Derby will always be remembered for the dramatic moment when Bet Twice swerved in front of Alysheba, causing him to stumble and almost to fall. Forgotten will be the reason that Alysheba had reached a perfect striking position: a typically flawless ride by Chris McCarron.

While many of his rivals were being hindered by heavy traffic in the 17-horse field, McCarron found relatively smooth sailing for Alysheba. He went to the rail early, stayed there around the first turn, then eased his way to the outside for clear running room when he felt his mount starting to accelerate. Even so, he didn’t lose too much ground on the final turn when he made his winning move.

Nothing he did was going to make the highlight films on the evening newscasts, but that was just the point. McCarron has become one of America’s best jockeys with this kind of quiet efficiency, with his tactical expertise. His style is so unpretentious that he is often underrated--Californians generally consider the flashier Laffit Pincay Jr. to be the superior rider--but it has enabled McCarron to win more than 4,500 races by age 32.

Marylanders saw the early signs of this talent when the curly-haired youngster broke in at Bowie in 1974. That year he won 546 races--still a world record. But when he went to California to compete on a day-to-day basis against the best riding colony in the country, he honed his skills.

Whereas Pincay might be able to outmuscle him, nobody outfinesses McCarron in California. He saves ground on the turns; he avoids trouble and traffic; he is on the lead if the pace is slow; he is stalking the leaders when the pace is fast. He was always in the right place at the right time--except on Oct. 17 at Santa Anita.

On that day, McCarron was involved in a terrible five-horse spill. He said, “The horse I was riding tried to jump a horse who’d fallen in front of him, and he didn’t quite make it, but he threw me clear. When I somersaulted, it seemed like eight or 10 seconds had gone by and I was thinking, ‘God, the horses missed me,’ but then--bang--one of them got me.”

McCarron’s leg was broken in four places, and his recovery was a long, painful process, mentally and physically: “I love this sport, and I missed it so much that I hated to go to the track,” he said. “When I went home from the Breeders’ Cup (after doing commentary on the Nov. 1 NBC telecast), I was in a very depressed state.

“The physical rehabilitation was a long, tough process, but very enlightening,” McCarron said. “I’ve always thought that people don’t appreciate the fact that riders have to be well-conditioned athletes. But even I didn’t appreciate it enough. I had the crazy idea that I could go back and work horses a week, and I’d be ready to ride. I was anxious: the classics were approaching rapidly. But when I went out and sat on a pony and just jogged around the stable area, I knew it was going to take me a month.”

McCarron got back into action just in time to get the mount on Alysheba and take another shot at the Derby. After winning Eclipse awards, national money-winning titles and race-winning titles, this was the one great goal that had eluded him.

But instead of his great moment of triumph, the Derby could have been a terrible disaster. The near-fall happened so fast that McCarron didn’t have time to be scared, but he said, “When the pony boy pulled me up after the race, I was almost in shock. God! There were 15 other horses behind me!”

How did McCarron avoid a calamitous fall?

“The only thought that went through my mind was to pull my colt around Bet Twice,” he said, “but it happened so quickly that either I or the horse didn’t react. After he recovered after clipping heels and stumbling, people said to me, ‘You did an incredible job,’ but I had nothing to do with it.

“There are times when a rider can assist a horse in a situation like that. But when you’re in a drive, with your feet tucked up behind you and your weight going forward, you can’t do it. It was the horse. Either that or a guardian angel reached down and grabbed us.”

That may be so in this case; but, as a rule, a horse doesn’t need divine intervention if he has Chris McCarron on his back.