McCarron Nears Century Mark

DEL MAR — Chris McCarron was surprised when the statistic was mentioned.

“More than Shoe?” McCarron said.

Yes, McCarron has won more stakes races at Del Mar than the retired Bill Shoemaker, who won 93 of them during 26 seasons at the seaside course. McCarron, who first rode at Del Mar in 1978, passed Shoemaker in late August last year, then added four more stakes wins before the meet ended three weeks later. With 98 stakes to his credit, McCarron, 41, seems a cinch to hit the century mark during this year’s meet. He has shots at Nos. 99 and 100 today when he rides in both divisions of the opening-day feature, the Oceanside Stakes.

Last year, when he won 48 races overall to lead the Del Mar standings for the fifth time, McCarron rode 12 of those winners in stakes, tying a record that Laffit Pincay set in 1976. Pincay, 49, ranks third, behind McCarron and Shoemaker, on the stakes list with 86 wins here. Eddie Delahoussaye is fourth with 69.

After his California break-in year, 1978, McCarron has won at least two Del Mar stakes every year but 1990, when he broke both legs and an arm in a June 3 spill at Hollywood Park and didn’t resume riding until the meet was almost over.

He remembers his first Del Mar stake win, astride Indian Hill Stable’s Happy Holme in the 1978 Rancho Bernardo Handicap, as though it were yesterday.

“A fast filly,” McCarron said. “Warren Stute trained her. Paco Mena used to ride her. The owner’s silks were white, with an [American] Indian head on the back.”

McCarron won the Rancho Bernardo four more times, including last year’s running with Track Gal. He has won the Graduation Stakes, for 2-year-old California-breds, eight times, including four in a row starting in 1979. Seven La Jolla Handicaps have gone to McCarron, who has won the turf stake at its old distance of a mile and its current distance of 1 1/16 miles. He has won the San Clemente Handicap five times, the last two years with Work The Crowd and Jewel Princess. The time before that, he won with Flawlessly (1991).

McCarron also won the 1991 Del Mar Oaks with Flawlessly, and in 1992 he and trainer Charlie Whittingham’s two-time Eclipse Award-winning distaffer began their three-year domination of the Ramona Handicap, Del Mar’s premier grass race for fillies and mares.

“That third Ramona with Flawlessly was something special,” McCarron said. “Winning that stake three times like that was quite an accomplishment.”

Of the 24 races on Del Mar’s stakes schedule this season, McCarron has won 21 of them at least once. The ones that have eluded him include the five-year-old Pacific Classic (he was second to Tinners Way with Best Pal in 1994); the Pat O’Brien Handicap and the Del Mar Derby.

For several years, McCarron wasn’t comfortable riding at Del Mar because of the sharp turns and short stretch. At barely 900 feet, Del Mar has the shortest stretch of any major track in the country. At 1,321 feet, Hollywood Park has one of the longest.

“It took me longer to get used to Del Mar than it has for any other track I’ve ridden at,” the Hall of Fame jockey said. “The turns are very different from many tracks.”

Although McCarron is a three-time winner of the Oceanside, the traditional Del Mar opener for 3-year-olds on grass, he has been blanked in the stake since 1983.

Horse Racing Notes

The Oceanside is being run in divisions for the eighth consecutive year. The same jockeys have won both divisions in each of the last two years--Corey Nakatani in 1995 and Gary Stevens in 1994. . . . Post time is 2 p.m., except for 4 p.m. starts the first four Fridays, and a 12:30 p.m. first post on Pacific Classic day, Aug. 10. . . . There will be racing Wednesday through Monday through Sept. 11. . . . Mike Mitchell won 19 races last year to lead the meet. . . . Last year, favorites won 37% of the races, the highest percentage since 1979.