21 Years After His Retirement, Chris McCarron Sits Down for a Chat

Watch 21 Years After His Retirement, Chris McCarron Sits Down for a Chat - thoroughbreddailynews on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00In his first year of riding in 1974, Chris McCarran broke a record by riding 574 winners,

00:09the most ever by a jockey.

00:11Three years later, he was on his way to California, where the jockey colony would include no fewer

00:16than nine future Hall of Famers, including himself.

00:19The TDN's Chris McGrath sat down with McCarran to talk about what he learned from his fellow

00:24riders and much more.

00:26Here's a piece of their conversation.

00:29There's no question in my mind that most of the jockeys that I had the pleasure of

00:34riding with and against out in California are all over the place, actually.

00:39They're multi-time champions because of their tremendous desire to do the very best that

00:45they possibly can.

00:46I look back and I have to pinch myself all the time with my reflections because there

00:52were nine jockeys in that colony, all through the 80s, early 90s.

00:58Nine of them are in the Hall of Fame.

01:01And what a classroom I got to participate in.

01:06And I was always seeking answers.

01:09You know, I had questions, I'd see Lafitte do something, I would just watch and figure

01:15that out.

01:17A lot of times I could ask them, but when you get to the point where you're as competitive

01:25as they are, which in my case happened, I didn't want to impose.

01:30I didn't want to go to somebody like Shue and say, how did you get that filly to change

01:33leads like that?

01:34You know, I rode her, I couldn't get her to change.

01:37I could approach Bill like that and he would give me an answer, but I didn't want to impose

01:42because down deep inside of me, I thought, well, if a younger person came to me and asked

01:50me that question, and that person's a leading rider and I'm second, I don't want to offer

01:56him or her anything that's going to help them go out there and beat me.

02:01You know, it's really, really competitive.

02:04I learned my trade and to get to the level that I reached by watching and listening.

02:10You can learn a great deal from standing under the monitor, that you all come back in after

02:14the race, we're watching the TV, I'm listening to conversation, you know, and Delahousie

02:20might say something, you know, Sandy Hawley might say something, Darryl McHarg, Lafitte

02:26Shue, all these guys that were incredibly talented, are incredibly talented.

02:31I relish the educational process.