Gulfstream Park: Katie Davis will ride in championship meet
Her ledger includes having ridden at 18 racetracks in 10 states as well as competing in Puerto Rico and England over her dozen years as a professional jockey. Starting later this month, Katie Davis will be checking another one off the list.
Davis, already having surpassed a career-best in purse earnings with seven weeks to go after emerging as a breakout star during the Netflix documentary series Race for the Crown after its springtime release, plans to ride full-time at Gulfstream Park’s 2025-26 championship meet. The country’s most prestigious winter race destination opens Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, and runs through March 29.
“We’re coming,” the 33-year-old Davis said. “We’re just looking for a new challenge. I love setting goals and trying to reach them. That’s it. It is a new track to add to my list, so I’m excited.”
The Davis name is a familiar one at Gulfstream. Her father, Robbie, split time between Florida and New York during a riding career that saw him win 3,382 races, including 31 Grade 1 stakes, between 1981 and 2002. Younger brother Dylan spent his apprentice season of 2013-14 in South Florida and returned last winter to rank among the championship meet’s leading riders with 38 wins and $2.37 million in purses earned despite missing the first five weeks.
Katie Davis grew up wintering at Gulfstream, and it was where she first met her future husband, ex-jockey Trevor McCarthy, when they were just children and McCarthy’s father, Michael, rode on the Florida-Delaware Park circuit. Their families became close, and the elder McCarthys currently live year-round in Delray Beach, about 40 miles north of the track.
Married since December 2020, Davis and McCarthy are parents to a 4-year-old daughter, Riley. McCarthy won 1,871 races and was a four-time year-end champion in Maryland between 2011 and 2024 and now works in real estate investment and development.
“I told Trevor, ‘Riley’s not in school yet. If I’m going to struggle, I wouldn’t mind struggling in the warm weather,’ ” Davis said. “His parents live in Delray, so we’re right there close to them in the winter. It was kind of a back-and-forth decision, and we’re going on with it.
“I rode at the Meadowlands this fall and I had a taste of winning a little bit more often. I know Gulfstream is very tough. It’s like going to Saratoga in that way,” she added. “I’m willing to take a chance. I’m excited.”
Davis won with four of seven mounts during the Meadowlands’ nine-day Thoroughbred stand, which ended Oct. 17. She had three wins and $403,462 in purse earnings during the Belmont at the Big A meet that concluded Nov. 2, pushing her season bankroll to $2,782,798. Overall, she has 40 wins with 419 starters this year.
“We got a couple of opportunities this fall with a couple of trainers that do go down there and we’re kind of just trying to look for those opportunities maybe to stay in with them or get more, because they’re coming back during the spring and then they’re here for the summer anyway,” Davis said. “We’re looking to expand our business.
“When my dad rode we switched schools every year. Trevor has his career of fixing and flipping houses and he wants to be close to it, too. It’s a little slow for him this winter so we’re like, ‘Let’s just go,’ ” she added. “Let’s go and enjoy some sunshine, spend time with his parents down there and expand our business.”
Davis is one of six siblings who were born into racing. Her older sister, Jackie, was the first to ride professionally and is based at Finger Lakes in western New York, where she continues her recovery from a spill in June. Older brother Eddie is a former assistant to trainer Jimmy Jerkens who had a short-lived training career of his own before gaining recognition as the regular exercise rider for 2023 horse of the year Cody’s Wish.
Katie Davis likened her upcoming Gulfstream sojourn to her first full season riding at Saratoga in 2023, when she won seven races and $544,078 from 86 mounts. At the same meet McCarthy had four winners and $559,549 from 84 starters.
It was also the summer where the always enthusiastic and energetic Davis, rarely if ever seen without her signature wide grin, earned the nickname "Smiling Assassin." In a span of 19 days, she earned three of her wins, with her husband, sister and brother each finishing second.
“My first year at Saratoga everyone was telling me, ‘You’re crazy, you should go to Monmouth, Saratoga’s too tough.’ I was like, whatever. Saratoga’s my hometown and my husband is riding there. If I make it I make it, if I don’t I don’t. I’m here to enjoy myself,” she said. “Every time I came back from a race, I’m straight cheesing. Laffit Pincay III said, ‘She’s like the smiling assassin. She gets a kick out of it and then she nails them.’ I was grinning the whole way back.”
Another advantage for Davis riding at Gulfstream is it being the only track in North America with three racing surfaces, dirt, turf and Tapeta. Belmont Park, scheduled to reopen in the fall of 2026, will be the second with the addition of a synthetic surface.
“It would be nice to get a jump on it before the new Belmont opens. I’ve ridden at Presque Isle (Downs) a couple times and done well, and I love it. It’s like riding a grass race. Knock on wood I wouldn’t want to fall on it, but I like it. I thrive on it,” she said. “Even (trainer) Barclay Tagg said, ‘You come down and get the jump and then you know how to ride that track once it opens.’ He was the first one I asked about Florida. He said, ‘You have to come down.’ ”
Primarily based in New York, Tagg has been a Gulfstream winter resident for decades. He won the 2020 Holy Bull (G3) and Florida Derby (G1) with Tiz the Law before the horse went on to win the Belmont and Travers (G1) and run second in the Kentucky Derby. In 2003 the Tagg-trained Funny Cide launched his season at Gulfstream before winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.
“New York is home. I wouldn’t be where I am and have the success that I’ve had without the people and the support I have there,” Davis said. “I will be excited to keep working with and winning for them when I get back.
“Like my dad always said, ‘Once you go up you could come back down so you can’t forget about all your fellow trainers that helped you along the way,’ ” she added. “I still ride for the guys from when I started with the 10-pound bug and I was horrible. I ride for all those guys. It’s great.”
Davis will continue to be represented by agent Ryan Bond, who picked up her book in January. Bond is a son of trainer Jim Bond, who won the 1999 and 2000 Gulfstream Park Handicap (G1) with Behrens and 2002 Donn Handicap (G1), now the $3 million Pegasus World Cup, with Mongoose.
“We want to take a challenge. We’re excited, both of us. We have a fire lit under our butts,” Davis said. “It’s not about the money to me. It’s about winning and taking care of the horses and giving everybody that experience of winning. Everybody wants to win.
“I don’t mind riding those cheaper races. I want to get in and show my talent and my personality to more clients,” she added. “I fight for third, second, fourth even fifth place. I’ve had owners say, ‘Thank you for getting fifth’ in a $100,000 race. I say, ‘Listen, I know it pays your feed bill.’ I get it.”
Outside of racing, the general public got a glimpse of Davis’ personality on Netflix, where her segment of the series focused on the climb as a female in a male-dominated industry, one that continues every day.
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to do anything but be myself and either you like me or you don’t’ kind of deal. I got a lot of fans,” Davis said. “After the races Sunday I cut my eye, drove to the ER and told the lady I’m a jockey and what happened. And she goes, ‘Wait, you’re the girl on Netflix?’
“Instead of the racetrack it was more like fans and people gravitating to me, which is awesome because in some sense I’m helping people along their journey, as well, and I love that,” she added. “It’s a tough industry to break into and I’m still here, fighting the battle.”