Injured Jockey McCarthy Eager to Get Back in the Saddle
Injured Jockey McCarthy Eager to Get Back in the Saddle
Champion Maryland Rider Cleared to Get On Horses Dec. 5
LAUREL, MD – For a while, Trevor McCarthy felt – and looked – like a jockey again. Wearing the orange and white silks of Hall of Fame horseman King Leatherbury’s The Jim Stable, the 23-year-old was at Laurel Park over the weekend signing autographs as part of Ben’s Cat Day, honoring the late Mid-Atlantic legend he was honored to ride at the end of his storied career.
It was as close as McCarthy has been to riding since suffering a dislocated left shoulder May 21 and having surgery to fix it three weeks later. It’s as close as he will be until late December or early January, when the driven and hard-working rising star estimates his return to the irons.
McCarthy left an Oct. 31 doctor’s appointment with news that he could expect to start getting on horses again for the first time Dec. 5. Though Christmas doesn’t come for another three weeks, no one would blame the Delaware native for celebrating a little early.
“It feels great. Finally, I see a target point. It’s been a long process – from the end of May to the first week in December,” McCarthy said. “That’s a long time. I’ve had three injuries and this is the longest one I’ve had. You don’t think how long six months is until you sit out. Man, you’ve missed half the year, you’ve missed half the season, especially the prime season, summertime. It was pretty disappointing, but you’ve just got to take things as they come, I guess.”
For McCarthy, one of the busiest and most active jockeys in the country, it was particularly difficult. He ranked among the national leaders with 106 wins and had nearly $3.5 million in purse earnings at the time he was sidelined.
The majority of his 526 mounts came at Laurel, where he opened 2017 leading the winter-spring stand for his sixth individual meet title in Maryland, a state he has led in victories twice in the last three years. His last full day came Preakness (G1) Day, May 20, at historic Pimlico Race Course. He also rode out of town at Gulfstream Park, Aqueduct, Belmont Park, Keeneland, Monmouth Park, Parx, Penn National and Turfway Park.
“I try and stay busy. I had a goal that I wanted to be in the top five for wins this year,” McCarthy said. “I think when I had my injury I was second. That was a big goal for me and it just kind of went out the window, which is fine. I understand, things change, but maybe next year.”
It was at Monmouth where McCarthy was hurt, breaking his pinky finger and dislocating his shoulder after landing awkwardly when thrown by his mount, Skip the Talk, just eight days after he won his 1,000th career race there on Rainbow Heir in the Wolf Hill Stakes.
Though McCarthy’s shoulder was put back into place, he and agent Scott Silver decided the best long-term course of action was to have surgery and correct the issue so that it wouldn’t reoccur. Dr. Christopher Dodson, a board-certified sports medicine surgeon that specializes in shoulder, knee and elbow injuries, performed the operation at Bryn Mawr Hospital outside Philadelphia.
“I started therapy around two months after surgery,” McCarthy said. “At the three-month mark I was finally able to start running and exercising, so that was a big plus. At month four I was able to start working out a little bit more. Besides just therapy, I was able to do stuff on my own at the gym. Now in month five, I’m able to do whatever I want, lifting-wise, and I have full range of motion in my arm, which is great. I really can do everything I want to do besides get on a racehorse.
“I have to wait an extra month for that, maybe three weeks; I’m hoping,” he added. “We’ll see. I’ve been trying to keep myself in shape and work out every day. It was especially a big deal when they let me start running and get back on a treadmill or a bike machine. That was great to get my stamina back.”
Being at Laurel for Ben’s Cat Day was one of the few times during his recuperation that McCarthy has been to the racetrack; in part, because he missed it but also to allow him to focus on his recovery.
“At the beginning I tried to keep myself very distant. I tried to just kind of enjoy myself and not pay attention too much to the racing, just to kind of get away from it and get a break,” McCarthy said. “It was very hard for me to do that. I live very close to Delaware Park so I made some trips out there and to Laurel and it’s very hard for me to stay away from the track because it’s all I do, you know?
“I stay so busy riding and that’s really all I dedicate myself to so I was like, ‘Man, what am I supposed to do?’” he added. “I was very bored with myself. Definitely I made some trips out on big days to the races.”
McCarthy said he tried to take advantage of the down time to visit relatives and get back to some hobbies he had before his career got into full swing in 2012 and time off became a luxury.
“I used to do a lot of crabbing when I was a kid so I was able to enjoy that this summer,” he said. “I did some crabbing and fishing and boating, which was fun. I was able to see some family members I haven’t seen in a while. There’s always that thought in your mind, though, that you want to get back.”
Monday at Racing at Laurel
Racing resumes Monday at Laurel with a nine-race program beginning at 12:30 p.m. Jockey Daniel Centeno won three races Sunday. Centeno won aboard Angel At War ($3.20) in the fifth, Enterprising Lady ($14) in the seventh and Jaguar Poz ($5) in the eighth.
