SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – After a 36-year riding career, Chris DeCarlo has retired from the saddle and taken a full-time position with the New York Racing Association. DeCarlo will work in the racing office in the morning and will be a placing judge in the afternoon. DeCarlo, 52, received his stewards’ accreditation last year. He needed to work 30 days at a track before he could begin seeking employment as a steward. He began working in the NYRA racing office at Aqueduct in February and planned to go back to riding in the spring. But when longtime NYRA employee Sonny Taylor had to take a leave absence due to illness, DeCarlo was asked to stay on. “It really hasn’t been a hard transition for me,” DeCarlo said Thursday. “I miss riding and competing, but I don’t miss the daily grind. I think the time is right. My business was floundering.” DeCarlo rode 1,205 winners from 9,976 mounts and his horses earned $44,768,192 in purses. DeCarlo won 25 graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Carter aboard Green Gratto in 2017. He rode Tricky Escape to three graded victories and Park Avenue Ball to two graded victories. On the transition from riding to becoming a racing official, DeCarlo said, “It’s gone pretty smoothly. I didn’t know how I was going to like it or if I was going to like it or what was going to happen. Being in the industry and knowing everybody here for so many years just made it so much easier than to quit a job and start somewhere new without knowing anybody.”