Pincay and Spawr Enjoy The Moment

Some time ago, Laffit Pincay said that if he ever breaks Bill Shoemaker’s races-won record, it would be fitting if win No. 8,834 comes on one of trainer Bill Spawr’s horses.

It’s a loyalty thing. In recent years, Pincay’s business has tumbled. Last year he barely rode in 700 races as many trainers, perceiving that age had dulled some of his skills, gave their horses to other jockeys. But Spawr has continued to ride Pincay, never losing confidence.

“I still think he’s a great rider,” Spawr said. “Much of the time, he’s not getting honest horses to ride. He doesn’t get a chance with many favorites anymore. So you can’t go by that when you look at his [recent] record.”

This season at Santa Anita, the Spawr-Pincay connection has been as visible as ever, but while Pincay’s enjoying a solid meet with other trainers, the Spawr barn has turned cold. Sunday might be the turn-around for the trainer. At least it got him and Pincay back on the screen together. Spawr saddled Enjoy The Moment in the $131,200 Las Flores Handicap, and Pincay, 53, rode the fast 4-year-old filly to a three-length win over Tomorrows Sunshine, longest shot in the five-horse field. Stop Traffic, the 11-10 favorite, finished last.

The win was Pincay’s 8,704th, leaving him 129 short of Shoemaker. After 43 days at Santa Anita, Pincay has won 31 races, good for fourth in the standings.

Pincay has won the Las Flores five times, the first coming with the mare Everything Lovely in 1970, four years after he had left his native Panama. Alex Solis, who leads the Santa Anita riders with 43 wins, was six years old in 1970.

“Laffit’s the best,” Spawr said Sunday. “We’re not close friends, but I just respect him so much. I respect him as an athlete and as a great rider.”

One of the great finishers in race-riding, Pincay sent Enjoy The Moment to the front early, and after scorching early fractions (21 2/5 and 43 4/5) they had enough left to complete six furlongs in 1:08 2/5, missing the stakes record by one-fifth of a second. The California-bred granddaughter of Seattle Slew paid $6.40, earning $78,720 for her sixth win in nine starts. Because of Pincay’s overweight, she carried 117 pounds instead of the assigned 114. Stop Traffic was the high weight with 122.

Horse Racing Notes

The Las Flores was the second start for Enjoy The Moment in the colors of Kip Knelman of Edina, Minn. Knelman bought the filly from her breeders, Fred and Alice Jacoby, for what Bill Spawr said was between $300,000 and $400,000. . . . After winning Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park with Vicar, jockey Shane Sellers traveled to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and won another stake for 3-year-olds, the $125,000 Risen Star, with Ecton Park. Second, beaten by a nose, was Answer Lively, who’s winless in two starts since he won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November and clinched an Eclipse Award. Trainer Elliott Walden’s Ecton Park, who paid $11.80 after running 1 1/16 miles in 1:44 4/5, was running in his first stake. The son of Forty Niner, running at a different track in each of his starts, has won two of four races. Kimberlite Pipe, 72-1, was third.