McMahon's arraignment on attempted murder charges scheduled for August

Jockey C.J. McMahon, who was arrested over the weekend at his Louisiana home and charged with attempted murder, is not scheduled to appear in court until August, and the rider is weighing his options about whether to continue to ride until he is arraigned, according to his agent.

McMahon, 26, was arrested when officers served a warrant based on a traffic altercation that occurred Dec. 27, according to his agent, Bobby Kelly. Although initial records from the Lafayette Parish Sherriff’s Office indicated that McMahon was arrested after a traffic stop, Kelly said that police arrived at McMahon’s home on Saturday to serve the warrant.

Kelly said that the charge of attempted murder, second degree, was based on the Dec. 27 traffic altercation.

“It all started with some argument or road rage thing on the highway,” Kelly said. “You know how these things are. It takes two to tango. Anyway the guy in the truck pulled up next to him and C.J. pulled out a gun and fired a shot into the car’s body and then sped off. I guess the cops got called after that.”

McMahon was released on an $80,000 bond but his arraignment scheduled for Tuesday did not take place, Kelly said. He was given a court date in early August to respond to the charges, Kelly said.

McMahon, who has not responded to a message on his cell phone, also was charged with illegal possession of drugs and weapons after the officers served the warrant.

Officials at the Lafayette Parish Sherriff’s Office have not responded to detailed messages seeking information about the arrest and warrant.

Thoroughbred Daily News reported that Louisiana does not arraign individuals charged of crimes until a local district attorney agrees to pursue the charges, citing an unnamed spokeswoman.

McMahon, the son of a jockey, took out his rider’s license in 2011, when he was 16 years old. In both 2015 and 2016, McMahon won more than 200 races and had purse earnings in excess of $3.5 million.

However, the following year he was suspended by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission after testing positive for methamphetamines and the active ingredient in marijuana, and results on the racetrack since then have been mixed. In 2020, he had 47 wins from 391 starts, with earnings of $1.15 million.

McMahon was most recently riding at Delta Downs in Louisiana. He is named on 12 mounts on the Friday card at Sam Houston Race Park in Texas (including coupled entries in three of the races), and on eight horses for Saturday.

Although Kelly said that McMahon had not yet decided to travel to Texas, and although Dwight Berube, the general manager of Sam Houston, did not return a message left on his work phone, one of Sam Houston’s Twitter accounts posted a notice on Wednesday afternoon that McMahon would not be allowed to ride at the track.