G.R.Carter became Quarter racing’s all-time leading jockey in spectacular fashion on June 1 at Remington Park. Entering the final weekend of the Oklahoma City track’s Quarter Horse meet, Carter needed a little more than $162,000 to match Jacky Martin’s record of $41,405,207.
Carter, 40, a former gymnast known to perform a celebratory back-flip dismount in the winner’s circle, won the Land Run Stakes and just missed the 350-yard track record on Duck Mea Running, the meet’s champion Oklahoma-bred. He then piloted Coronas Fast Dash to a second-place finish in the G1 Heritage Place Derby, and in the final race, the $1.1 million Heritage Place Futurity, rode Jess Zoomin to place second. Carter had qualified the winner, 24-1 longshot Stolis Winner, but had picked the mount on Jess Zoomin, who he had ridden to qualify for the race with a track record-setting 17.320 seconds.
In addition to finishing the meet with a new Quarter Horse world earnings record of $41,601,052, Carter scored a record 98 wins, breaking his own previous record of 93 for a season at Remington Park (with 25% wins and 56% in-the-money finishes), and earned his eleventh championship title at the track.
In the past, Carter, a Pawhuska, OK native, has also topped the charts in wins and/or earnings at other major Quarter tracks, including Ruidoso Downs. But while Jacky Martin, now retired, won the All American Futurity, a race that pays $1 million to the winner, seven times, Carter has won that race just once, which makes his earnings record all the more significant.
“To pass someone like Jacky is pretty special,” Carter said. “It’s kind of humbling because when I first started riding, I studied people like him. It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work for a lot of years.”
Carter’s $41 million record does not include money earned in Paint and Appaloosa races, where he is also a leader. On May 31 at Remington Park, he won the $190,000 Graham Paint Futurity on Flash N B Gone. On April 19, he rode Bust N Moves to beat 16-time undefeated Got Country Grip by a nod in the Mister Lewie Handicap and foil the Paint champion’s hopes for a world record of 17 consecutive wins.