Quarter racing’s all-time leading rider, G.R. Carter, Jr., 41, reached another milestone on October 3, when he earned his 3,000th career win at Los Alamitos Race Course in Cypress, CA. He joins an elite club of six riders who have achieved 3,000 victories: Alvin Brossette (3,631), Danny Cardoza (3,337), Kenneth Hart (3,199, John Creager (3,047) and Eddie Garcia (3,022). Only Garcia and Carter are still actively riding.

Carter has earned more than $47.6 million riding Quarter Horses. He has been named AQHA champion jockey eight times, including the past six consecutive years. In the history of the award, no other jockey has won the title more than five times. He has also been named world champion jockey seven times by the American Paint Horse Association.

As a boy growing up in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, Carter participated in local rodeos and, at 14, began galloping racehorses for a trainer with horses at Blue Ribbon and Eureka Downs in eastern Kansas. He became a full time jockey in 1986.

In 2008, Carter set a new AQHA single-season earnings record with $5,027,173 and eclipsed the previous record of $4.5 million, which he also owned. The same year, 2008, he won the All American Futurity on Stolis Winner. It was his second time to claim the prestigious win. His first time was in 1998, aboard Falling In Loveagain. His father-in-law, Jerry Burgess also won the All American Futurity as a jockey, in 1975 aboard Bugs Alive In 75.

A former state champion high school gymnast, Carter is also well known among race fans for his famous back-flip dismount following a stakes win.