'It's an obsession;' Carroll, trainer's son, begins as jockey
Becoming a jockey has been a lifelong goal for Declan Carroll. You could say it’s in his blood, with his father a trainer, his mom galloping racehorses in the morning and other members of his family jockeys in Ireland.
Carroll, 19, got his first mount Sept. 30 at Woodbine and Friday gets his chance to ride much closer to home at Keeneland. He grew up in Louisville, Ky., only an hour West of the Lexington track, and recently graduated from Trinity High School.
Being at the racetrack has always been part of Carroll's life, as he would visit with his dad, David, who trained his own string of horses in Kentucky before joining Mark Casse as an assistant. Carroll can vividly recall that first race.
“I had my first ride at Woodbine for Mark Casse, and I can’t thank him enough for that,” he said. “Then my dad, obviously. We were fourth and that was a good experience. No whip in the one hole, that was a bit tough and different. You got everybody outside of you shouting. You’re just kind of going along. The horse took care of me well and we had a good time.”
Carroll’s fourth-place ride aboard Mr. Cheerful was years in the making. He remembered being on a horse’s back before he could walk and was showing by the time he was 7 or 8, starting with mounted games.
“You kind of get that racy feeling,” he said. “I thought I was a little jockey on some of the ponies.”
After spending multiple Halloweens dressed as a jockey, and having his eighth birthday party in the jockeys’ room, Carroll cut his teeth galloping racehorses for Conor Murphy at Skylight Training Center. He moved on to gallop horses for his dad, spent a summer in Ireland galloping for trainer Michael Halford – including Godolphin horses – and rode at Saratoga for Casse’s assistant, Nick Tomlinson-Alleyne.
Carroll is now breezing horses in the morning instead of galloping for Casse every day, but said his favorites to ride in the barn were All American Hero and Heavenly Love, who won the Grade 1 Alcibiades Stakes a year ago and is now ridden by Carroll’s mom, Kim, in the mornings.
The morning before his first race at Woodbine, Carroll galloped seven horses for Casse before making an early arrival to the jockey’s room for the first race on the card, a maiden special weight for 3-year-olds and up going seven furlongs on the synthetic surface.
“In the room, you’re sitting there, you’re kind of replaying everything in your head, how you want things to go. I was nervous as could be,” Carroll said. “I just tried to ask everybody questions, just getting the feel of everything. As I was walking out to the paddock I get a phone call. It was from Mark, and Mark’s giving me instructions and in my head I’m like, ‘Oh my God. This is happening.’”
Carroll described the feeling of entering the gate as “butterflies in your stomach.” He was able to settle Mr. Cheerful behind Woodbine’s leading jockey, Eurico da Silva, and move up the rail when a gap opened turning for home.
As for riding at Keeneland in his second start, Carroll said, “It’s a very big track. You feel a bit more pressure. But the trainer, Matt Kordenbrock, I’m very gracious he gave me the opportunity to ride for him first of all. My agent, Joe Pauley, he’s been doing a tremendous job getting me help and breezing many in the mornings.”
Carrol again drew the rail for Friday’s third race at Keeneland, and will be aboard the 5-year-old mare Rilla. The race is for $7,500 claimers going six furlongs over the main track.
“It will probably be a bit different,” Carroll said. “It’s a bigger crowd, a bit more intense, a lot more people I know. Just hoping for a smooth ride and we’ll see what we can do.”
David Carroll was also around the barn Thursday morning, keeping the Keeneland string running. His dad and brother were jockeys in his native Ireland, and David rode, too, before switching to training.
“Well, I’m nervous,” he said with a quiet laugh about his son’s new career. “I’m very proud of him. This is something he’s wanted to do ever since he was 5 years old and he loves the game. He just finished high school. This is the road he wants to pursue, so I’m proud that he’s following his dreams.”
Carroll said his dad’s career in horse racing certainly influenced his own, but he wanted to take a different path than the trainer route.
“I knew I never wanted to be a trainer because I’ve seen the things he’s had to go through, dealing with a bunch of different things,” Carroll said. “But he’s always supported my decision to become a jockey.”
David Carroll had success as a trainer conditioning multiple graded stakes winners, including Acoma, who won the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland’s 2010 fall meet. Not long after Carroll started getting his feel aboard racehorses, his dad made the business decision to join the Casse team and close his own stable.
“I’ve been in this business all my life,” David Carroll said. “He’s seen firsthand the highs and lows of the game from me training and doing well to going out of business so to speak. He’s seen how hard jockeys have to work and how thick of a business it is. He’s going into this knowing all aspects of it.”
“More gray hairs, Declan,” he joked with his son.
Outside of racing and riding in the morning, Carroll’s day consist of visiting the gym, riding the Equicizer and watching horse racing at home and at the track.
“It’s an obsession. I won’t do anything else when I go home,” he said. “All I do is watch horse racing. Even ESPN sports, I couldn’t care less about it. It’s horses, horses, horses. Back home in Ireland, my cousin, Gary Carroll, he’s a jockey. I watch him every day and just try to learn new things from him.”
European racing has stuck with Carroll and his Irish roots. In addition to his cousin, he looks up to Frankie Dettori and Ryan Moore, and hopes down the road he’ll have the opportunity to ride internationally at Ascot and Meydan. Locally, Carroll looks to the Kentucky-based jockeys he grew up around such as Corey Lanerie and Robby Albarado, as well as Jose Ortiz, whose form Carroll described as “picture perfect.”
Carroll knows not all the success will come at once. The best advice he’s received is to be disciplined.
"You have to want to get up, because not everyone wants to get up at 4’o clock in the morning and come to the track," Carroll said. "It’s just not normal for a lot of people.”
While an apprentice jockey, Carroll hopes to pick up the Eclipse Award and earn more rides at Churchill Downs, Keeneland and bigger tracks like Saratoga. After Keeneland, he’ll head home to Churchill Downs for the November meet before wintering at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.
Although his career is just beginning and he’s working on picking up more mounts, one aspect of the game gets Carroll up early every morning.
“Favorite part? Being able to get on these beautiful animals,” he said. “They’re strong, 1,000-pound animals. You can’t get that anywhere else. I just love it.”