'His own worst critic,' apprentice jockey Carroll on the rise
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Photo:
Christine Oser/HRN
The 10-race card at Ellis Park last Saturday hadn’t yet reached its midway point, but it was already obvious that Declan Carroll was feeling it. He was seeing the openings. He was coming down on the right side of split-second judgement calls. His confidence was surging with every mount and, fittingly, horses were responding with some equally emboldened results.
The 20-year-old jockey was in the midst of an exceptional 24-hour stretch, one that saw him boot home back-to-back winners in his last two rides at the Pea Patch on Friday, then prevail in two of the track’s first four races the following day. He was putting on a mini showcase of the talent that has already earned him high esteem among one of the top barns in North America. Yet, after the eighth race went into the books on Saturday, the only thing sticking in his mind was how much better he could have just been.
“He is continuously wanting to improve, and a perfect example was last Saturday,” said David Carroll, father of Declan and assistant to trainer and Hall of Fame finalist Mark Casse. “He had a good day Friday. He had two more winners on Saturday, and he just got beat a (head) for the win on a third one on Saturday (in the eighth race). But he was very hard on himself after the race. That was the race he focused on, not the two that he won. He’s his own worst critic - and that will only make him better and make him stronger.”
From the time he could form his earliest thoughts, Declan Carroll’s focus has been on making a successful life for himself in the saddle. He began 2019 with hopes of ending the year having made a case for himself to be on the Eclipse Award ballot for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. While an early season injury threw a painful wrench into that plan, the affable Louisville, Ky., native has been undeterred in his quest to add his own layer of eminence to his established name.
(Apprentice jockey Declan Carroll at Ellis Park.)
The jockey colony at Ellis Park this season has been widely hailed as one of the toughest in recent times at the Henderson, Ky., oval, which is why Declan Carroll’s exploits in recent weeks hold serious credence. Less than a year after getting legged up for his first race and just over two months after returning from a fractured T11 vertebrae suffered at Fair Grounds in March, Carroll finds himself eighth in the Ellis Park jockey standings heading into the Friday, Aug. 16 card with nine wins, eight seconds, and seven third-place efforts for a bankroll of $260,869 – just behind veteran Shaun Bridgmohan and currently ahead of such stalwarts as Gabriel Saez, David Cohen and Calvin Borel.
Carroll’s four wins in two days last weekend was a take-notice moment of what the young reinsman is capable of as his opportunities become more plentiful. At the time of his injury at Fair Grounds when he became unseated from Emery's Dream on March 9, Carroll had won 12 of his 176 starts at the New Orleans oval and was the track’s leading apprentice. After returning to saddle during the tail end of the Churchill Downs meet, he saw the depth-laden Ellis Park jock’s room as an ideal barometer for both his physical progress and mental fortitude.
“Every meet is tough, but this meet especially I think is much tougher than past years,” Declan Carroll said. “A lot of jockeys are staying there this year, a lot of trainers are and the races are definitely more competitive I would think from just watching races in the past. My expectations coming in were just to ride my best and try and put a good impression for the rest of the year.
“The injury was really tough to kind of swallow. We were getting going at the Fair Grounds, and you have things in your mind like trying to win an Eclipse Award, or at least try to compete for it and that kind of shuts down everything. But with the injury, instead of just looking at the negatives, I tried to look at it as a positive - learn from it, watch a lot more races and just try and take the most out of it. We came back to a tough meet obviously at Churchill, but this meet has obviously picked up and there is no looking back now.”
It has become a family tradition of sorts for those bearing the Carroll name to showcase their horsemanship to the masses.
Prior to joining the Casse Racing team in 2016, David Carroll operated his own successful stable for more than two decades, counting Grade 1-winner Acoma and Denis of Cork, the third-place finisher in the 2008 Kentucky Derby, among his graduates. His father and brother were jockeys in their native Ireland and, considering he and his wife Kim – a respected exercise rider in her own right – raised their children alongside their equine proteges, David Carroll knew the day was likely coming when they were going to stress over seeing one of their own in the starting gate.
“It’s always been my dream and my goal to make this a career," Declan Carroll said. “I think going to races with my dad and riding horses is something I fell in love with and I just couldn’t see myself doing anything else. It’s something that if you’re in it, you have to go both feet in and horses are my passion and being a jockey is just something I’ve always wanted to do.”
“I’d be lying if I said to you I wanted him to be a jockey,” David Carroll added. “I come from a family of jockeys. I see how dangerous it is. I see what a hard life it is. But he is a kid with big goals, big dreams and…one of the things he says to me is ‘It’s my dream, let me follow my dream. This is what I want to do’. And who are we to stop them? The only thing we can do is love them and support them and just pray for them. And Kim and I are so proud of him, as we are our daughter of the people they are. They’re just great young people.”
(Apprentice jockey Declan Carroll wins an Aug. 9 maiden race for trainer Mark Casse aboard Live Oak Plantation's Crystal Glacier. Coady Photography)
While his older sister Aisling is making her own splash working with top event rider and Olympic gold medalist, Phillip Dutton, Declan Carroll has been fortunate to have some exceptional mentorship himself in making his lifelong aspiration into a vocation.
It is a rare occasion to see an apprentice rider atop a Casse-trained runner but, for more than just the obvious reasons, the classic-winning conditioner hasn’t balked at putting some of his most promising talents in the hands of the younger Carroll. From a personal standpoint, Casse has literally watched Declan Carroll grow up in front of him and views him as a member of the extended family. What caught Casse’s critical eye, however, was the work ethic Carroll carried with him, his insatiable desire to learn, and the intangibles he boasted that just can’t be taught.
Among the horses Casse had Declan Carroll getting on in the mornings was eventual Preakness Stakes winner War of Will – who was rightfully tabbed as the barn’s next star last summer in Saratoga. He could see his subtle hands getting responses out of horses that can mean the difference between a trip to the winner’s circle and an off-the-board finish. Since putting him on his first race mount at Woodbine last September, Casse has continued to give Declan Carroll the ultimate endorsement by repeatedly having his name assigned to his charges in the entry box.
“First and foremost, Declan is an extremely good young man, which in my book is extremely important,” Casse said. “I could see it in the beginning when he started galloping horses and working horses for us that he gets along well with horses. And of course I love the Carroll family but, all that being said, if he wasn’t so talented I wouldn’t ride him. I ride him because he is talented.
“We’ve given him some horses and he’s made the best of it and I think now he’s going to take off. I think if he hadn’t gotten injured in New Orleans, then toward the end of the year, we’d be talking about him winning the Eclipse Award as one of the finalists. And it can still happen. He’s had some unfortunate incidences that have hurt him but I told him, ‘Cream rises to the top and you are the cream. You just have to keep working your way through it.’ And people are getting to see what I already knew - how talented he is.”
After the Ellis Park meet wraps up Sept. 2, Declan Carroll and his agent Joe Pauley hope to make more statements at the upcoming Kentucky Downs meeting and Churchill Downs. Humble in his tone, Carroll is quick to pepper any talk of his recent success with declarations of appreciation for those who have lent him their support and knowledge, always mindful that the best way to keep momentum going is to not let complacency get in its path.
“There have been a lot of challenges that maybe I didn’t see coming in but once you’re in it, you see it a lot clearer,” Declan Carroll said. “For the first year, besides the injury obviously, so far it’s been great and I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of great horsemen.”
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