Matt McCarron knows how to wait. He’s a master at patiently timing his race strategy,as was obvious to anyone who watched his brilliant win aboard
Hirapour in the $100,000 Colonial Cup (S.C.) in November.

That win, and the National Steeplechase Association’s leading jockey title and accolades that followed it, were the culmination of years of waiting for McCarron, 33. He finished the season with 24 wins out of 109 starts, with $592,743 in money won. McCarron’s best year came in his 12th season of racing, and it came as a bit of a surprise.

“You can never expect something like that,” he said. “It was breathtaking, and I had no idea it would turn out the way it did.”

At the start of the 2003 season, McCarron wasn’t on anyone’s list as a contender for the NSA leading jockey title. He’d been racing for 10 years and in his best season–2000–had won 13 races. But that all changed after he guided Lord Kenneth to win the Virginia Gold Cup that May.

“Up to that point last year, I had only won one race. And I’d kind of gotten Lord Kenneth beat at Middleburg [Va.], so it really was a reconciling moment, not only for Middleburg, but also for the whole spring. That was what started turning things around for me last year.”

McCarron, Kennett Square, Pa., followed that up with wins on 12 other horses, including three on Greek Hero for trainer Alicia Murphy. He then reunited with Lord Kenneth for the win in the International Gold Cup (Va.) in September. In dramatic fashion, he and David Bentley went into the final race meet, the Colonial Cup, tied for the title, which is where they stayed.

“Last year, they did a thing in Steeplechase Times about the top seven jockeys going into the fall season, and I was quite a bit back. But, and sometimes ignorantly so, I’m always the optimist, and I figured, what the heck, why not shoot for the stars. And things just kept happening,” said McCarron.

He carried that momentum into this year, with the goal of “just coming close to what I did last year, since I’d never even been close to the title before then,” he said. “There were actually a few horses I was looking forward to riding who fell by the wayside early in the year, like Gritty Sandy and Lord Kenneth, so at first it was looking kind of bleak.”

But that didn’t last long, as McCarron quickly chalked up grade I stakes wins on Sur La Tete and Racey Dreamer, as well as multiple wins on Church Ghost and Gold Mitten. And the season culminated with the Colonial Cup score.

Girlfriend and fellow jockey Danielle Hodsdon enjoyed watching the season unfold for McCarron. “He’s the eternal optimist,” she said. “Three months before the Breeders Cup, he’ll be talking ‘If I win the Breeders Cup