North Carolina is not renowned for producing professional jockeys but arguably the state’s most famous jockey is the subject of an extraordinary comeback story.
Herb McCauley rode more than 3,000 winners during a career spent mainly riding at northeast tracks, but the final chapter of that career could form the basis of a feel-good movie.
The Durham-born McCauley’s career appeared to be over when he suffered serious leg injuries in a riding accident in July 1998, but he eventually battled back, overcoming adversity along the way, to return to professional race riding nine years later.
Big-race and big-priced winners
He was known for his big-race winners and at big odds, too. Thunder Rumble caused a +2500 upset in the 1992 Jim Dandy Stakes and Gal In A Ruckus a +3400 shock in the 1995 Kentucky Oaks. But while online betting offers future markets for upcoming races, including +250 on Gregory to win the St Leger on what will be Frankie Dettori’s last ride in a British Classic, the odds on horse racing comebacks of McCauley’s nature would have far eclipsed those of his own big-race successes.
Born in 1957, McCauley was 18 when he won his first race at Keystone Raceway Park, having previously spent time helping to break in yearlings down in Florida before spending a summer at Delaware Park after also gaining experience riding steeplechasers.
He quickly made his mark as an apprentice jockey at Keystone and Monmouth Park before going on to win three riding titles at Meadowlands in the early 1980s as the big-race winners started to pile up, with his first Grade One success coming aboard Wings Of Jove in the Matron Stakes at Belmont Stakes in 1982.
But while McCauley enjoyed other victories in high-profile races, such as in the Haskell Invitational Handicap and the Man o’ War Stakes, success in a Triple Crown race eluded him. The closest McCauley came to landing one of those prestigious races was in 1984 when Coax Me Chad finished runner-up behind Swale.
His Kentucky Oaks success over a decade later was the result of a brilliantly judged front-running ride as Gal In A Ruckus held off the odds-on favorite Urbane. McCauley’s talents were also recognized by trainers much further afield than the northeastern tracks he most frequently rode at.
The E. P. Taylor Stakes staged at Woodbine in Toronto is a race that has been largely dominated by European trainers for the past 40 years and, more often than not, European jockeys would also travel over to ride the horses. But as a testament to McCauley’s ability, he was entrusted with the ride on Wandering Star, who was trained in Britain by James Fanshawe, and rewarded that show of faith with victory in the 1996 running of the E. P. Taylor.
McCauley’s improbable comeback
Less than two years later, though, McCauley’s career appeared to be over when he suffered a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula in his left leg after being thrown to the ground in a race at Monmouth Park. It took over seven years before he was able to walk properly without a limp and yet he made an improbable riding comeback at the age of 50 in September 2007 at Meadowlands.
His first winner since his awe-inspiring return arrived a month later and in 2008, he won his first stakes race in a decade when Casino Transaction won the Red Cross Stakes at Monmouth Park.
McCauley, who like many jockeys struggled with his weight throughout his career, eventually retired in May 2010 after a sporting comeback which defied the odds and demonstrated the strength of the human spirit.
