Pincay Is Showing No Signs of Slowing at 52, and Odds Are He’ll Eventually Replace Shoemaker as Winningest Jockey

DEL MAR —  On the day after Christmas in 1966, Laffit Pincay, three days short of his 20th birthday, rode his first winner at Santa Anita. The 2-year-old colt, at 5-1, was named Rising Market, and there on the favored runner-up, a nose short at the wire, was Bill Shoemaker.

Sometime early next year, as sure as Panama has a canal, Pincay figures to be nosing out Shoemaker again, only this time it won’t be in a mere $7,000 six-furlong allowance race. Most likely at the same Santa Anita, Pincay will ride his 8,834th winner, and one of the most durable records in sports will fall: Shoemaker’s 8,833 victories.

“When Laffit gets close, I told him not to mess around and go right on and do it right away,” said Shoemaker, recalling a light-hearted conversation he had with Pincay in the Hollywood Park jockeys’ room not long ago.

It was here at Del Mar, on Sept. 7, 1970, that Shoemaker rode his 6,033rd winner, breaking the already-retired Johnny Longden’s record. Shoemaker didn’t stop there, though. He piled up victories by the hundreds before his retirement from the saddle in 1990. A promising training career was seriously compromised when an automobile accident left him a quadriplegic in 1991, and Shoemaker left racing altogether in 1997.

“Down at Del Mar, it seemed like they had Longden hanging around forever after I tied his record,” said Shoemaker, who was 58 when he rode his last winner. “I just couldn’t get that one more win, and it went on for days. They wanted him there to congratulate me in the winner’s circle. I hope Laffit doesn’t do that to me.

“But seriously, I’m glad that it’s going to be him. I couldn’t think of a better guy to do it. He’s very dedicated, and he’s been a credit to the profession.”

Pincay, 52, would have to suffer a major injury to be deprived of the record. On Saturday, at Canterbury Park near Minneapolis, he rode trainer Vladimir Cerin’s California shipper, Aplomado, to victory in the $100,000 Claiming Crown Stakes, for his 8,770th win, which leaves him 63 short of the record. The next day, returning to Del Mar, Pincay finished second on three mounts.

“Shoe’s the best rider I’ve ever known,” Pincay said. “But I’m just taking it one race at a time. If I ever get there [break the record], I’ll feel fortunate and proud.”

In his heyday, 63 wins could have been accomplished in about three months, but Pincay doesn’t command the attention from many trainers anymore, and mounts--especially mounts on horses with good chances--can be scarce. Pincay hasn’t ridden 1,000 races in a year since 1995.

Trainer Bill Spawr, who used Pincay regularly in recent years until Spawr had an argument with Pincay’s agent, Bob Meldahl, about three months ago, doesn’t believe that Pincay’s skills have eroded.

“I still think he’s a good rider,” Spawr said. “My problem recently was with the agent, not Laffit, but it’s something I’d rather not talk about. When Laffit turned 50, he hadn’t lost anything. He’s still so strong. In the last sixteenth of a mile, if you’ve got a horse going head and head with somebody else’s, I’ll take Laffit over anybody.”

A teenager who came out of his native Panama to further his riding career in the United States, Pincay started, for $500 a month, under contract to horse owner Fred Hooper in Chicago in 1966. Since then, Pincay has ridden horses that have earned more than $204 million, an amount exceeded only by Chris McCarron and Pat Day on the money list.

Pincay won the first Eclipse Award ever given for riding, in 1971, and his five Eclipses are still a jockeys’ record. He was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1975, well before he had won seven Breeders’ Cup races, and played a major part in trainer Woody Stephens’ five consecutive Belmont Stakes victories, riding Conquistador Cielo, Caveat and Swale, respectively, in 1982, ’83 and ’84.

Pincay also won the 1984 Kentucky Derby with Swale, but he says the best horse he has ever ridden was Affirmed. Affirmed swept the Triple Crown in 1978, then jockey Steve Cauthen was sacked the next year and the colt went undefeated in seven races under Pincay.

In California, where Pincay has been based since 1970, he has won 34 meet titles, and hardly missed winning any of the important races on the highly competitive Santa Anita-Hollywood Park-Del Mar circuit. He has won the Santa Anita Derby seven times, the Santa Anita Handicap five times, the Hollywood Gold Cup seven times, and in 1987 he became the only jockey ever to win seven races in a day at Santa Anita, the last six in succession.

“I’ve accomplished a lot of things I wanted to do,” Pincay said. “I’ve made good money. I won a lot of big races. But it sure wasn’t easy.”

He might have been a natural as a rider, but his talents have been wrapped in a body that, by rights, ought to weigh 140 pounds. Anything more than 117 pounds is unacceptable in racing, because horses frequently qualify to carry several pounds less than that, and Pincay, with the self-discipline of a Trappist monk, has stayed within a pound or two of the ceiling. Legendary is the 750-calorie-a-day diet that keeps his weight in check.

“I thank God that I’ve been able to keep the weight to where I could still ride,” the 5-foot-1 Pincay said. “I’ve still been able to stay strong enough to have many productive years.”

His admirers among the other riders are legion, starting with fellow Panamanian Alex Solis, but a contemporary who best identifies with Pincay’s battles with the scales is Chris Antley. A year ago, Antley had ballooned his way out of racing, but he came back this year to ride Charismatic--a colt Pincay had ridden earlier--to victories in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

“You can look at Laffit’s body and you can see how tough it is for him,” Antley said. “To [keep the weight down], it’s a 365-days-a-year lifestyle. There’s no such thing as cheating, because you wouldn’t be able to get away with it. And to think that he’s been doing this to ride for maybe 20 years. I just can’t imagine how he’s been able to do it.”

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Pincay Milestones

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WIN DATE HORSE TRACK 1 May 19, 1964 Huelen Presidente Remon Panama 1 (U.S.) July 1, 1966 Teacher’s Art Arlington Park 3,000 July 17, 1975 Lexington Lark Hollywood Park 4,000 Nov. 18, 1979 Gladiolus Aqueduct 5,000 Sept. 30, 1981 Wander Santa Anita 6,000 Feb. 17, 1985 Doria’s Delight Santa Anita 7,000 Nov. 9, 1988 Phone Bid Santa Anita 8,000 Aug. 29, 1993 El Toreo Del Mar 8,500 Jan. 2, 1997 Tacomolly Santa Anita 8,770 Aug. 7, 1999 Aplomado Canterbury Park

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WINNINGNEST JOCKEYS

BILL SHOEMAKER

8,833

LAFFIT PINCAY

8,770

PAT DAY

7,530

DAVE GALL

7,263

ANGEL CORDERO

7,057

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ALSO

ENSHRINED

Trainer Wayne Lukas was among those inducted into the horse racing’s Hall of Fame. Page 7