Racing at Hollywood Park : McCarron to Have Plate Removed Next Year

Jockey Chris McCarron said Friday that he would have the plate in his left leg removed about a year from now and that he would only miss six weeks of action instead of three months.

The decision to remove the half-pound, stainless-steel plate has been hanging over McCarron’s head since it was inserted in his shattered thigh bone following a five-horse spill at Santa Anita last Oct. 16. Laffit Pincay, whose horse also went down, was thrown forward and he landed helmet first on McCarron, breaking McCarron’s leg in four places.

McCarron missed five months of action, then returned to the saddle in mid-March. Seven months to the day of his accident, McCarron won the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with Alysheba. Two weeks before, they had teamed to win the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs and a week from today, in the Belmont Stakes, they are in a position to win the Triple Crown, which would be worth $5 million to the owners of the horse, with McCarron getting a $500,000 share.

When McCarron came out of surgery last October, doctors told him that the plate would need to be removed in the next two years and they estimated his recuperation time at three months.

Jockeys ride year-round in California, and a rider of McCarron’s caliber is also in demand for stakes assignments elsewhere. A three-month hiatus would hurt a top rider at the beginning of the year, when he would be trying to establish himself with a 3-year-old for the Triple Crown races, and it also would be a hardship at the end of the year, when mounts are available for the $10-million Breeders’ Cup races in November.

“They’re telling me now that I can come back six weeks after the plate is out,” McCarron said Friday. “I hope to have it done next year, just about the time the kids are out of school.”

Such a plan means that McCarron would miss most of the final weeks of the Hollywood Park season, but he would return in time to ride at Del Mar and be available for the Budweiser-Arlington Million in Chicago and the lucrative stakes schedule at Saratoga.

As for the Triple Crown sweep with Alysheba, McCarron seems to like his chances even more than one Las Vegas linemaker, who has made the colt an early 9-5 favorite in the Belmont.

“I’ll be riding him with confidence, because I think he’s the best horse,” McCarron said. “I have no doubts about his capability of handling the mile-and-a-half distance. He’s never been tired after any of the three races I’ve ridden him.

“As for not being able to use Lasix, I’m not qualified to talk about that. It’s only a guess, but I hope he doesn’t need that kind of medication in the Belmont.”

Alysheba has raced on Lasix, an anti-bleeding remedy, in his last four races, but won’t be permitted to use the medication in the Belmont because New York rules prohibit it.

Notes Chris McCarron will be riding Ivor’s Image today in the $150,000 Yerba Buena Handicap at Golden Gate Fields, where he won three stakes in the same day a week ago. . . . On Sunday, McCarron rides Bob Back, one of eight horses entered in the $100,000 Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park. . . . There’s another major race on Belmont day, the $200,000 Mother Goose Stakes, and McCarron will be aboard Bal Du Bois, the 3-year-old filly whom he rode to a second-place finish in the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes the day before the Preakness at Pimlico. . . . Today at Hollywood, Hidden Light carries 121 pounds, one more than Family Style, in the A Gleam Handicap. . . . Besides Bob Back, others entered in Sunday’s Inglewood Handicap are Sharrood, Skip Out Front, Aventino, Le Belvedere, Thrill Show, Mister Wonderful, Clever Song and Barbery. . . . Manila, the grass star who has won eight straight stakes, runs today in the Red Smith Handicap at Belmont Park. . . . Momentus, who finished 14th in the Kentucky Derby, suffered injuries to both front legs after returning to California and has been taken out of training. . . . Candi’s Gold, eighth in the Derby, is entered in Sunday’s ninth race at Hollywood.