Winning Ponies

McKee's father, David, had been a jockey in the late 1970s and early ’80s. ... John was inspired to become a jockey after seeing his father’s win pictures. He grew up in the Cincinnati area where he was always around horses, learned to ride at an early age, and was a star wrestler in high school … His parents tried to discourage his desire to become a jockey but at 17 he got his start with Thoroughbreds at Poplar Creek Farm near Bethel, Ohio, and learned to be an exercise rider.