IN PURSUIT : He’s Turning 50, but Pincay Is Not About to End His Quest to Catch Shoemaker and His Record 8,833 Victories

Four days shy of 50 and on the eve of the start of Santa Anita’s winter-spring meeting, the quest continues for Laffit Pincay Jr.

Actually, Pincay’s pursuit of Bill Shoemaker’s record 8,833 victories is more like a slow-speed chase these days.

When Hollywood Park ended its fall season Sunday, Pincay stood at 8,494 victories, leaving him 340 short of becoming horse racing’s winningest jockey.

He is inching closer, but reduced opportunities make it uncertain whether the powerful Panamanian, who certainly does not look his age, will be able to surpass, or even catch, his longtime friend and one-time rival.

The chances are fewer and, frequently, the odds are long on the mounts he gets. With five racing days left in 1996, Pincay has 126 victories, down 30 from 1995, and he will finish the year having ridden in fewer than 1,000 races, compared to 1,269 in ’95. Not since last year’s Oak Leaf, more than 14 months ago, has the man who has 13 victories in races worth $1 million or more won a Grade I event.

If he is to follow the schedule he has set for himself, Pincay will have to pick up the pace.

Last month, the jockey, who earned his way into the sport’s Hall of Fame in 1975--when Corey Nakatani and Kent Desormeaux were 5--told wife Jeanine how much longer he planned to ride.

“I told her I was going to ride this Christmas and then two more,” he said, meaning through the end of 1998. “And, if I was close [to 50 winners], I was going to go for [Shoemaker’s record]. If I wasn’t, I was going to retire.

“She wants me to retire right now,” he said, laughing. “When I do, we’ll probably move to Del Mar and enjoy our life.”

Despite his decreased workload and the almost nonexistent chance to ride in stakes races--he has only four stakes wins this year and three of those were outside California--Pincay isn’t ready to end a career that began in his native land in 1964.

Given the injuries he has incurred--among them 11 collarbone fractures--and the constant battle with weight, Pincay acknowledges that there would be extreme self-satisfaction were he to break the record.

“It would mean a lot to me,” he said. “I want to prove to myself that I can do it.”

Even so, catching Shoemaker isn’t an obsession. What keeps him going is the simple fact that he enjoys what he’s doing. Pincay spends no time fretting about how things aren’t the way they used to be.

“Everybody has his time,” he said. “This is what I’ve learned to accept. Before, I would have been thinking, ‘What the hell is going on? Why am I not [riding and winning more races]?’

“I’m able to accept there’s some tough competition out there and riders here who are younger and able to work harder than I am.

“In a way, it’s been my fault that I have declined because I realized I couldn’t work as hard as I wanted to because of my diet. When I started to get up in the morning and work a lot of horses to try to make things happen, I would get very, very tired in the evening and all I wanted to do was sleep.

“I eat so few calories [750 a day] that I couldn’t work as hard as I wanted. A lot of people think that I didn’t show up in the morning because I wanted to stay home, but it wasn’t that at all. I didn’t show up because I wanted to be stronger in the afternoon.

“If I can win races once in a while and little by little get to Shoemaker’s record, that’s fine. I don’t have any pressure on me and I don’t put any pressure on myself. I enjoy coming to the track, I enjoy the guys in the [jockeys’] room, have a lot of good friends and enjoy watching the big races. I wish I was riding more in the big races, but there’s nothing I can do about it and I’m not going to worry about it. I like what I’m doing and I’m healthy enough to continue.”

He is not quite the same as he once was, but he is still in remarkable shape and still can finish with any jockey.

“Ever since I hit 40, I feel a lot better mentally,” he said. “You’re at your best physically when you are younger, but, to be honest with you, I’m enjoying myself more now than I was when I was in my 20s. I’m much more relaxed and I don’t let things get to me the way they once did.

“I admired Shoemaker for that reason. He was the type of guy who would get beaten by a nose in a $100,000 race and we would go out to dinner that night and he would have a great time. He didn’t let it bother him. That wasn’t me. I would dwell [on losses] and try to figure out what I had done wrong and it would really bother me. I didn’t enjoy myself at all. Everything was about being No. 1.”

Nor is he concerned about his impending birthday.

“Fifty is just a number to me,” he said. “Anybody who reaches 40 or 50 and thinks he is old is out of his mind. Believe me, if you take care of yourself, 50 is a very young age. I’ve kept myself in good shape and that’s why I’ve been able to keep going all these years.”

Like everyone else in the world’s strongest jockey colony, Gary Stevens is a big admirer of Pincay.

“I respect the whole package,” he said. “The person he is off the racetrack and the dedication he has to this game and being a jockey.

“Even as he turns 50, there’s not a more consistent player in the game, day in and day out. I don’t think there ever has been and probably never will be anyone as consistent as he is.

“He’s come to understand that a lot of people think he has a lost a step because of his age and he’s not offered the same mounts that he was throughout his career and probably hasn’t been for the past six years or so. With the love he has for the game, it’s got to be very hard for him to understand why that is, but he does understand and it doesn’t bother him. That may be why I have the most respect for him.

“I know deep down inside, he’s damn sure not intimidated by Gary Stevens or Corey Nakatani or Chris McCarron when he hits the eighth pole and he’s head and head. And I know, in his own mind and heart, he feels he’s every bit as good [as], if not better than, the younger guys. But he takes what’s given him and still wins with a lot of horses that nobody else could.

“For a guy like myself, it’s hard for me to see Laffit not be offered the Grade I winners like he was 10 years ago and for the phone not to be ringing off the hook. If I was a trainer, and I had a good, young horse that was headed for the Triple Crown or one specific race, Laffit would probably be my choice because of his experience and riding ability.

“I’m sure he’s not the same as he was between 30 and 40, but whatever he’s lacking in physical skills, he more than makes up for with his mental skills. He wins a lot of races with his mind.”

“Dedication” is the word most often heard when asking people in the sport about Pincay. His discipline with food is legendary and he almost never takes off his mounts.

A perfect example occurred three weeks ago. Named only to ride a longshot maiden in the day’s final race at Hollywood Park, Pincay was at the track well before post time for the race. Some of his younger counterparts wouldn’t have done that and a few have no qualms about begging off their mounts at the last minute.

“He’s such a modest, fine individual,” said trainer Ed Gregson, who has won many stakes in tandem with Pincay. “He’s always been that way, even when he was absolutely on top. He’s never had an attitude.

“He’s so congenial and relaxed when he’s in the paddock, and when you throw him up on a horse, he is so professional. He’s never moody and never too gregarious. He’s very steady, very professional.

“I remember the day before the [1986] Hollywood Gold Cup, he had hurt his ankle in the starting gate and I was trying to figure out who I was going to get to ride Super Diamond.

“But he showed up and he limped into the paddock. He said, ‘I know I look bad, but when I’m on the horse, I’m fine.’ Well, Super Diamond won and when he got off the horse in the winner’s circle, Laffit couldn’t even put his foot down. That tells you about his courage and dedication.”

Courageous, dedicated and content.

“I get up in the morning, exercise, read the [Daily Racing] Form, and if I ride three or four horses and one of them has a chance, I’m excited that I’m going to ride [a contender]. It makes me happy that I can have a nice afternoon, then go home and be with my wife and children without me falling asleep early. I’m happy.”

* OPENING DAY

Santa Anita opens 86-day meet trying to reverse attendance decline and improve quality of fields. C10

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Pincay at 50

Highlights of jockey Laffit Pincay’s career:

* First jockey to ride the winners of $190 million in purses.

* Inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 1975.

* Leading rider in track history at Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.

* Winner of eight national earnings titles (1970-75, 1979, 1985).

* Won 7,000th race Nov. 9, 1988, at Hollywood Park aboard Phone Bid.

* Won 8,000th race Aug. 29, 1993, at Del Mar aboard El Toreo.

* Winner of 13 races worth $1 million or more.

* Won Santa Anita-record seven races March 14, 1987.

* Won 13 meet titles at Santa Anita, and 13 at Hollywood Park, five at Del Mar, three at Oak Tree.

* Finished in top 10 on national earnings list every year from 1966 through 1989.

* Replaced Steve Cauthen aboard Affirmed in 1979.

* Won three consecutive Belmont Stakes (1982-84).