Laffit Pincay, Jr. was born December 29, 1946 in Panama City, Panama. He was the second of four children, whose parents divorced when he was a child. His father, a jockey, moved to Venezuela to race.

When Pincay was fifteen he got a job as a hot-walker and mucking out stalls. He worked from six in the morning until eleven-thirty, then went to school from two until six or seven at night. A year later he began exercising horses, and a year after that he began working horses out of the gate.

He won his first race on a horse named Huelen at Presidente Remon racetrack in Panama on May 16, 1964. Huelen was only his second career mount. In 1965, Pincay was brought to the United States by Fred W. Hooper. He began riding in Chicago at Arlington Park. Pincay won eight of his first eleven races in America. After riding at Hawthorne Park in Illinois, he moved to New York, and later on, to California.

In 1967 Pincay married Linda, the daughter of a horse breeder. In 1970, their daughter Lisa was born, and in 1975, their son, Laffit III, was born.

Laffit Pincay battled weight problems throughout his career, and tried everything from diet pills, water pills, the sweatbox, to special diets of nothing but fish. In the fall of 1974, while riding at Aqueduct in New York, Pincay collapsed in the jockeys' room. The doctor told Pincay that he had no salt, no potassium, and no water in his body, and if he didn't quit what he was doing he would have a heart attack at a young age. Shortly after that, in January of 1975, Pincay's close friend, jockey Alvaro Pineda, was killed in a starting gate accident at Santa Anita Park. Not long after, Pincay begin to stop and think about his life. He decided being the best jockey in America, winning the most money, wasn't worth his life. He tried new diets, took a lot of vitamens, and begin eating health foods. Soon his weight was under control and his health improved.

In 1983, Linda Pincay suffered a ruptured appendix, and was in ill health for months after that. Her health problems prevented her from traveling with her husband to his eleventh Kentucky Derby mount, aboard Swale. It was the first time she had not accompanied Pincay to Kentucky. In May of 1984, Pincay won the Kentucky Derby for the first time in eleven tries. He also won the Belmont Stakes in 1984 for the third consecutive time.

In January of 1985, Linda Pincay committed suicide. Laffit Pincay returned to racing two weeks after his wife's death. On his second day back, he won the Santa Maria Handicap on Adored, one of Linda's favorite horses. Laffit Pincay went on that year to become the first jockey to earn over $13 million in a single year. He also won his fifth Eclipse Award for the best jockey of 1985.

In 1988, Laffit Pincay met a lovely young lady named Jeanine, who was then eighteen. They begin dating, and were married in 1992. In October of 1993, their son, Jean-Laffit Pincay, was born.

Pincay currently races on the Southern California racing circuit (Santa Anita Park, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar Race Course). He has less than 300 wins left to break the world record of 8,833 wins.

Back to the main page.