If it’s Sunday, Katie Davis McCarthy is probably riding the country’s top thoroughbred horses at upward of 40 miles per hour, clad in colorful racing silks and — more often than she would like to admit — covered in mud.
Ms. Davis, 32, is the only female rider regularly competing in the New York Racing Association, and last summer she was the only woman to win at Saratoga Race Course, finishing first in seven races.
“Sometimes I just have a feeling,” she said. “I’ll be this huge long shot at 75 to 1, and I just know I’m going to win.”
After taking time off for maternity leave, she returned in 2023 and collected nearly $2.4 million in prize money, the most in her career. On Sundays, she competes at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, often against her husband, Trevor McCarthy, 29, and her brother Dylan Davis, 30.
The competitiveness carries over into the household. Sometimes her brother hosts game nights. “Oh, yeah, when we play cards, let me tell you: If the table wasn’t so heavy, we’d flip it over,” she said.
Ms. Davis lives in a multifamily home in the town of Elmont on Long Island with her husband and their 2-year-old daughter, Riley.
EARLY RISER I’m really laid back in the morning. I get up 45 minutes before I have to be on my horse. I’m out of bed at 6:45. I brush my teeth, get dressed and make my coffee to go. I don’t really have breakfast. Once I’m ready, I bring Riley downstairs. We’re out the door by 7:20 and at the track in five minutes.
DAY CARE DROP-OFF There’s a day care on the backside. It’s beautiful. Belmont is the only racetrack in America that has it. It’s mostly just people from the industry: grooms’ kids, hot-walkers’ kids, trainers’ kids. They’re all so diverse. Riley learns Spanish. She’ll come home telling us a new word she learned.
ON THE BACKSTRETCH I put my vest, helmet and boots on and go to my barn. I’ll normally breeze four horses for about 15 minutes each. I’ll breeze a horse that I’m riding in a race the following week. The trainers want you to get a feel for how the horse is moving. They’ll ask you to go a half-mile in a certain amount of time. Sometimes they’ll put a headpiece in your ear and tell you to go faster or slower. The horses are like kids locked in a room. Once you let them out, they run free. They really enjoy it. They’re bred to run.
FEEDBACK You always have to make sure you talk to the trainer before you leave. They protect their horses, and if they feel sore, they’ll have acupuncturists or masseuses come and rub them down. The horses are athletes, too. I’ll finish and pick up Riley, or my mom and dad, who train at the track, will pick her up and watch her for the day until racing is over.
NO HORSING AROUND You have to be at the track an hour before your race starts. We get to Aqueduct, sign in and we have to blow in a breathalyzer to make sure we weren’t drinking. If you don’t blow a 0.0, they’ll take you off all your horses. There’s zero tolerance. It’s the same as drinking and driving.
SWEAT IT OUT I’d rather work out than jump in a sauna since my legs get weak and it drains your hydration. We have a bicycle in the girls’ jocks’ room, so I’ll put my sauna suit on, put in my headphones and truck away for 20 minutes. I’ll listen to old country or DMX to pump me up. Sometimes Snoop Dogg.
JUST A MORSEL You don’t want to eat too much. Maybe I’ll grab some fruit or toast, or I’ll share a grilled cheese with Riley if she’s with me. It’s uncomfortable to ride a horse and bounce up and down after you eat a whole meal. It’s like telling someone to go run after Thanksgiving dinner.
MAKING WEIGHT I’ll see the clerk of scales who does all the weighing. I have to do 118. I step on the scale, he plugs it in and it goes straight to the stewards. If I’m over, they put two pounds over. If you’re always over, they’ll fine you, so you have to make weight. My weight is normally good. Sometimes it’s a little harder now because I’ve become a mom and it’s wintertime and your body is changing.
RACE PREP I get dressed and handicap my race, watch replays and think about how I want to ride my horse. I have a whiteboard with inspirational quotes to keep me positive. Twenty minutes before the race, I get my vest, helmet and crop — we don’t call it a whip. I put my jockey clothes on, my silks and arm number. The valet will have my saddle. I put my bandanna on, get my hair in my helmet and grab my gloves.
IN THE PADDOCK All the jockeys walk out to the paddock. The paddock judge makes sure everyone has their number, every horse is in order and all the equipment is right. You’re analyzing the race with the trainers. Some trainers are like, “You know this horse, good luck, have fun.” Others give a thousand instructions. I just smile. I’m laid back. Anything can happen; you just have to be ready.
AND THEY’RE OFF We get on our horse, walk onto the track with the ponies and get in the gate. They say, “all set,” the starter presses the button and we break. That’s when the adrenaline rush kicks in. It’s a lot of fun. We’re all in a pack. You can hear everything. Sometimes if you’re right next to another horse, you can have a full-blown conversation with the jock next to you. I don’t like talking unless a rider is in trouble. At the end of the day we’re all competing, but you want to make sure everyone is safe out there because it can be life or death.
SAY CHEESE Say I win the race, you come back and take a photo in the winner’s circle. The trainers will be waiting for you, the groom high-fives you, the owners are so excited. They have another weigh-in. You have to make exact weight. If you’re under, they can take your purse money away or give you a suspension. Everything is really regulated with your weight. There’s no cheating because there’s money on the line.
RINSE AND REPEAT If you ride in the next race, it’s all over again. You only have 20 minutes to recoup. If you rode a bad race, the trainer yelled at you or something happened in the race and you’re furious, you have to let it all go. This game is very mental. After my last race, I’ll wash the dirt off my face, shower and change. I don’t like rushing. I like to sit if I’ve had a long day, analyze and just leave it all at the racetrack.
LOADING UP ON CARBS On a Sunday, we’ll do game night and order pizza and pasta because that’s when we can actually eat. We have a couple drinks: beers or wine. There’s no racing on Monday so Sundays are our Friday nights. We’ll eat at the dinner table — just sit and talk, no phones. If there’s no room, we’re sharing one chair. We’re all small. Then we play Phase 10, and let me tell you, it’s intense, lots of screaming. We’ll play until 9:30. I give Riley a bath, and we’re jumping in bed. There’s no TV in our room. We turn off the lights around 10:30, and I’m out in five minutes.
Sunday Routine readers can follow Katie Davis McCarthy on X @jockeykdavis and on Instagram @ktdavis116.
