While many of the Preakness jockeys rode a light schedule over the days leading up to Saturday's Triple Crown race, Trevor McCarthy had a typically busy weekend.
The Laurel Park-based jockey, who turned 21 Saturday, will get his first Triple Crown mount Saturday with Bodhisattva, the Laurel Park-based colt who McCarthy won the Federico Tesio Stakes on earlier this year. But the days leading up to it didn't allow for much pre-Triple Crown nerves for the young jockey.
"It seems peculiar that he's so calm, and I just think it's because he's so busy — he's been riding every day up until here, and he hasn't really stopped since he came off his injury," his father, famed Delaware jockey Mike McCarthy, said.
"Having run all the other races, I think he's focusing on pacing himself along for the last couple of days. I think that's really the reason why he's pretty laid back."
Trevor McCarthy won three of his nine races and hit the board three other times Thursday. Jose Corrales, who owns and trains Bodhisattva, joked that he hoped McCarthy was nervous if those nerves led to such a successful day. McCarthy followed it up with a pair of wins, a second-place trip, and a third-place trip on Black Eyed Susan Day. McCarthy began Preakness day with wins in two of the first three races. He won the first on La Nina and the third on My Team.
The week is just as gratifying for the senior McCarthy as it is for his son. Mike McCarthy never got to ride in a Triple Crown race, but Trevor McCarthy credits his father for setting him up to succeed at such an early stage in his career. At age 20, McCarthy was the winningest jockey in Maryland, and he entered the weekend as Pimlico's winningest jockey.
"I'm happy because this is all he ever wanted to do from a little kid," Mike McCarthy said. "He put the hard work in. He sacrificed growing up as a normal thing as a kid, doing normal things. Every day off from school, every weekend, every holiday, he came to the racetrack with me. This is the payback for me. It's happening very fast for him. He just can't believe that, and we're the same way as parents. We can't believe it's going so fast, but hopefully there's better things to come as well."
That goes for both this weekend and the rest of his career.
"He's started off pretty good so far. He's got some really good mounts this afternoon," Mike McCarthy said. "The whole thing is if he has the strength to get through them. I'm sure he'll find something, a little bit left in the tank, for the Preakness."