Jockey Chris DeCarlo reached an important milestone at Monmouth Park on Saturday when he won his 1,000th career race.


DeCarlo booted home Oconee Gold ($5.00) in the eighth race for trainer Ramon Moya and accepted congratulations in a winner’s circle celebration afterward. He scored his 999th victory just one race earlier on Dontwait Toolong ($18.20) for trainer Jane Cibelli.


“It’s exciting,” said DeCarlo, 44, who began riding at 16 and has been a member of the jockey colony at tracks all over the East Coast and around the world. “I just want to continue to win races and I know that if I do that, I’ll keep being successful and keep getting to do what I love.”

DeCarlo won the 1986 Haskell Invitational on Wise Times when he was only 17 and led all riders in stakes wins at Monmouth in 2005. The following year he piloted Park Avenue Ball to three stakes wins, including Monmouth’s Iselin. Recently, he spent the 2010-2011 winter in Saudi Arabia riding first call for King Aziz.