Even since future Hall-of-Fame jockey Steve “The Kid” Cauthen, then a fresh-faced bug boy of 16, rode out of Ohio and Kentucky in the late 1970’s to take New York racing by storm, Aqueduct winter racing has been a haven for aspiring apprentice riders, several of which were dubbed “the next Cauthen.”
Today the newest “next Cauthen,” five-pound bug John McKee, begins riding at the Big A, named aboard four mounts. But unlike his predecessors, McKee, 21, already has followed in The Kid’s footsteps.
He was the leading rider earlier this year at River Downs, where Cauthen launched his career, and in fact broke Cauthen’s record by winning 114 races. He also topped Cauthen’s mark for apprentice victories, set in 1976, at the Churchill Downs fall meet with 27 winners. Four of those came on the last day of the stand, including two that paid more than 10-1.
Furthermore, McKee has the same agent, 73-year-old Eddie Campbell, who booked young Steve’s mounts before he came to New York.
“They’re both very polite, well-mannered, similar that way,” Campbell said. As for their horsebacking talent: “You can’t put it in words. People ask me, ‘when did you know he had it?’ Had what? What is there to know? You just watch. Horses run for him. It’s instinct.”
McKee, unfazed by his accomplishments so far, is taking the move in stride. “I’m just going to take it one day at a time,” he said. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. Things are meant to happen, and I was fortunate it was me.”
Before McKee rode his first race last March, Campbell put him through a year’s regimen of galloping and working horses every morning at the track. As a result, McKee – who at 4-11 and 101 pounds is a natural lightweight, “even smaller than Pat Day” – was more racing-wise than most bug boys from day one.
“We’ve talked together about every move since before he started riding,” said Campbell, who shares an apartment with McKee in Garden City. “I work slow. I like to build up steam. We’re both like that. We don’t like to make much noise.”
Campbell and McKee began thinking about New York last August. Although Maryland’s Ryan Fogelsonger has this year’s Eclipse Award for leading apprentice in the bag, McKee, who doesn’t lose his bug until June, is a top contender for next year’s Eclipse. But that wasn’t the idea behind coming to the Big Apple.
“We haven’t set goals,” Campbell said. “The only goal is for John to be the best rider that he could possibly be.”