Chris McCarron
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Chris McCarron (born March 27, 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame retired jockey
He was introduced to the sport of thoroughbred racing by his older brother, jockey Gregg McCarron. Chris McCarron began riding professionally in 1974 at East Coast racetracks where he won the Eclipse Award as the United States' apprentice jockey of the year. He moved to race in California in 1977, a year he scored his first of three wins in the Kentucky Oaks. In 1980 won the Eclipse Award again as best overall jockey and that same year his peers voted him the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.
McCarron won nine Breeders' Cup races, including five Breeders' Cup Classics and rode six wiinners in the U.S. Triple Crown Races:
- Kentucky Derby – Alysheba (1987), Go for Gin (1994)
- Preakness Stakes – Alysheba (1987), Pine Bluff (1992)
- Belmont Stakes – Danzig Connection (1986), Touch Gold (1997)
In 1989 Chris McCarron was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. After twenty-eight years in racing he retired in June of 2002. He finished as thoroughbred racing's all-time leader in purse earnings with more than $264 million in winnings.
In 2003, McCarron served as a technical advisor, racing designer and actor in the 2003 film Seabiscuit. That same year he was hired by Magna Entertainment Corp. to serve as Vice President and General Manager of Santa Anita Park.
