Afterlife Downs must be having some Thoroughbred meet. Within a few weeks of each other this winter, former jockeys Vince Bracciale Jr., Diane Crump, Gregg McCarron and Leo O'Brien died.
All four had Mid-Atlantic ties and, though their careers ended years ago, all made impacts.
West Virginia native and longtime Marylander Bracciale won 3,545 races, and teamed up with the likes of Ruffian, Broad Brush and Dave's Friend. Virginia resident Crump was the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. Born in Massachusetts but long defined as a Marylander, McCarron rode 2,403 winners including On the Sly, Mom's Command and Before Dawn. He also helped nurture the Hall of Fame riding career of his brother Chris and was the father of two-time champion steeplechase jockey Matt McCarron. Obituaries for the trio appear on page 55.
An Irishman who eventually settled in New York, O'Brien didn't get an obit back there with the others -- mostly because his regional connection went a little less deep -- but there's no doubting his importance. O'Brien rode on the National Steeplechase Association circuit in the 1960s and 1970s while also riding out for some of the biggest names in Thoroughbred racing -- Rokeby Stable, Sidney Watters Jr., LeRoy Jolley for starters.
In April 1964, O'Brien rode his first American winner -- in his first try -- as a seven-pound apprentice in a maiden hurdle at the Middleburg Spring Races in Virginia. He and mount *My Passion, owned by Raymond Guest's Powhatan stable and trained by E.A. Drinkwater, won twice more at Aqueduct that spring and O'Brien finished the year with 10 wins. The total fell to five in 1965, but O'Brien stuck it out and won at least 10 races in each of the next 11 seasons. He finished with 141 lifetime wins over jumps to earn a spot on the NSA's career leaderboard between Rigan McKinney and Robert "Specs" Crawford.
O'Brien never won a seasonal championship, though he made the top-three on four occasions, finished in the top seven nine times and watched his brother Michael win the crown in 1972.
Leo's 1971 season may have been his best, as he finished second to future Hall of Famer Jerry Fishback and was the regular rider of champion Shadow Brook. Trained by Watters for Stephen Clark Jr., Shadow Brook opened with a second in the Meadowbrook at Aqueduct in July. Two weeks later at Saratoga, he won Lovely Night Handicap over future champion Soothsayer despite conceding 17 pounds. Back for more in the American Grand National at Saratoga, Shadow Brook dominated 1970 champion Top Bid by a dozen lengths. O'Brien and his charge made it three in a row with a September win in the Brook Handicap at Belmont Park, yielding 24 pounds to runner-up Amarind. Shadow Brook won once more, with Fishback aboard, in the Temple Gwathmey as O'Brien had to honor a commitment to Powhatan runner Smooth Dealer (Ire) from overseas. In the season-ending Colonial Cup, O'Brien and Shadow Brook settled for fourth, after being second the year before, but claimed the championship. O'Brien and the son of Cohoes won seven races together. Other standouts ridden by O'Brien included Attribution, Gran Kan (Chi), Augustus Bay, National Anthem, Mako and Tall Award.
O'Brien stopped riding races in 1976, went back to Ireland to train alongside Michael and returned to the U.S. in 1981 with a single horse. You probably know the rest of the story.
That one horse, Sports Reporter (Ire), won four times over jumps and once on the flat and launched O'Brien's American training career. In a time before super-sized stables, O'Brien went on to condition New York-bred legend Fourstardave, who won at least one race at Saratoga Race Course each year from 1987-94 and is honored with a Grade 1 stakes at the track each summer. His trainer routinely presented the trophy.
The former jump jockey also trained champion Yanks Music and millionaire Grade 2 winner Irish Linnet and found a place in the New York training ranks. O'Brien made history in 1991 when Fourstars Allstar, Fourstardave's full-brother, landed the Irish Two Thousand Guineas-G1 at The Curragh to become the first American-based horse to win a European classic.
Over time, O'Brien's stable shrunk and he saddled his last runners in 2020 -- 56 years after those first U.S. jump rides. In between, he partnered with remarkable horses, raised a family (daughter Leona is married to Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez, son Keith works for the National Steeplechase Association, and granddaughters Darby and Jacinta are pursuing careers in racing) and left an impact on the game.
