Pincay Breaks Collarbone : Horse racing: Jockey injured when thrown from sulky in celebrity harness race at Los Alamitos.

On Friday afternoon, Laffit Pincay won the seventh race at Santa Anita aboard Fortunate Flyer to close to within one of Bill Shoemaker’s career record of 2,544 victories at the track.

A Friday night accident involving Pincay assured that Shoemaker will make his last ride at Santa Anita on Feb. 3 with his mark intact.

Pincay suffered a broken right collarbone when he was thrown from a sulky drawn by Trixie Norton as the four-horse field approached the gate for a celebrity harness race at Los Alamitos Race Course.

“The horse just seemed to stumble and fall,” said jockey Chris McCarron. Pincay and McCarron had won earlier heats in the race that was run to benefit the Don MacBeth Fund for injured jockeys.

Steward Mike Corley agreed with McCarron, adding that: “It would appear that the equipment tripped her up. . . . (Pincay) handled himself extremely well.”

The race was quickly stopped and Pincay was taken to Los Alamitos General Hospital, Dr. Charles J. Rennie III said he thought the jockey would be away from riding for “several weeks.”

Pincay seemed to accept his injury with resignation. “I can move it,” he said at the hospital, from which he was released shortly before midnight. “This is about the eighth time I’ve broken my collarbone.”

It was a bad night all around for Los Alamitos. Before the first race, the mutuel machines in the grandstand stopped working and five banks of lights on the clubhouse turn went out.

Fans were sent to working machines in the clubhouse, where long lines ensued. Track officials estimated they may have lost $200,000 because of the broken machines.

Times Associate Sports Editor John Cherwa and free-lance writer Steve Schuelein contributed to this report.