Fractured neck - Pincay in limbo

[rrbauer]

This ain't good.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/881590.asp

[andicap]

looks like he'll recover tho. good news there.

[Observer]

This is awful news .. I was totally enjoying his resurgence, eventhough he's on the "other" coast, and wanted to see him crack 10,000 wins.

:(

[Speed Figure]

I was at the track when he went down. I went to get the SEABISCUIT bobble head which is great. I hope the king comes back soon.:(

[Hosshead]

HE"S THE GREATEST !!! They shoulda given Tony Farina 7 years instead of 7 days ! Laffit my thoughts are with you for a full and speedy recovery, and 10,000 wins! Can't count the times I've said to Laffit "Great Ride", as he was walking back to the jocks room, after picking a horse up (with that great strength) and Setting his Nose Down On The Wire at Santa Anita.

[superfecta]

Originally posted by Hosshead
HE"S THE GREATEST !!! They shoulda given Tony Farina 7 years instead of 7 days ! Laffit my thoughts are with you for a full and speedy recovery, and 10,000 wins! Can't count the times I've said to Laffit "Great Ride", as he was walking back to the jocks room, after picking a horse up (with that great strength) and Setting his Nose Down On The Wire at Santa Anita. I've done that as well,seen him ride a horse with skill and getting the most from the mount.I hope he just gets healthy.I don't want him to end up hurting the rest of his days,he doesn't deserve that.If he never rides again,he still is the best in my opinion.

[freeneasy]

Yeah, I was so hopping that he would just retire before anything like this would happen. I hate to say it but we all knew it could happen and so did Lafitt, that is, that the longer he rode the more he could (would) be bucking the odds against something like this happening. And it was truly my hope that he would have just gone the same way of retirement as Chris and Eddie went. I'am sure we all knew that in the back of our mind and not only in the back of our mind but in the dark pit of our heart that after 9,000 wins, it would have been the right time to retire. I guess this was just a case where his heart beat his head to the wire.
Hey, you get better Lafitt.

[Kentucky Bred]

I had a chance to meet D. Wayne Lukas during the 80's and the subject of Pincay came up. He told me a story I will never forget until the day I die.

Many people don't know that Pincay had a lifelong problem making weight. He could never get below 117 pounds and his naturally muscular frame had problems making that weight. Guys like Shoemaker could eat on a regular basis, but Pincay was always fighting weight.

Lukas said that he sat next to Pincay on a coast to coast flight in first class from LA to NY when they were going there for a big stakes race. He said Pincay was worried about weight again. So, while Lukas sat next to him dining on steak, drinks and all the trimmings, Pincay was handed a bag of peanuts. He carefully took out ONE PEANUT from the bag and then took out a razor blade he had stashed in his bag (the good old days) and shaved off a sliver of peanut every 1/2 hour or so and let the peanut shaving dissolve in his mouth.

He made it coast to coast on ONE TOTAL PEANUT!!!

Who could have thought that he would want to continue riding this long living that kind of life? An amazing man with amazing determination.

Kentucky Bred

[Observer]

Originally posted by freeneasy
Yeah, I was so hopping that he would just retire before anything like this would happen. ... I'am sure we all knew that in the back of our mind and not only in the back of our mind but in the dark pit of our heart that after 9,000 wins, it would have been the right time to retire. ...

Let's face it, something "like this" could happen to any rider at any given moment when they're out there .. whether in the afternoon, or in the morning for workouts. It's a part of the game. I am a big fan of Pincay's, and believe me, I'm saddened by what has happened .. however, the first thing that crossed my mind when he got to 9,000 was him going for 10,000. I don't want to see any rider go down in a nasty spill, but it's when a rider starts riding with fear of the "like this" spills/injuries, that they're going to get hurt, or hurt someone else.

Pincay has had a tremendous resurgence in his career .. he had been so awesome .. truly a pleasure to watch .. to think that he should have packed it in simply because he was "bucking the odds" is unfair .. that's something that Pincay has been doing for a long time .. bucking the odds.

Besides .. Julie Krone just had a pretty devastating spill/injury herself .. should we be questioning her decision of making the come back to racing?? She really hadn't even been back all that long.

I think it's great to see riders with a burning desire to be out there .. who show it every time they go out there .. despite the dangers that we all know are lurking .. regardless of who they may be, or how old they are.

[JustRalph]

I saw an interview with Pincay on TVG a while back. He said that he doesn't worry about weight anymore. He said in the "old days" he didn't work out at all. He controlled his weight only by calorie intake. He says now he works out every day. This allows him to eat "Twice a day".

Jerry Bailey says that when he is asked what he is going to do when he retires, he replies: "Eat Lunch"

[Tom]

Originally posted by Kentucky Bred


He made it coast to coast on ONE TOTAL PEANUT!!!

Kentucky Bred

Are you sure it wasn't that he was flying on NorthWest???

[freeneasy]

yes Observer, and the plain fact of plain matter is this, and that is that each 'next' day you wake up, the fact that a plane can crash into your house with you in it, or that you can be twice be struck by lightning has now been extended to that day.
The possibility and only the possibility of a tradgedy or fortunet event taking place has been bound over to that next day. And that being able to take place only if you are alive. If you had died the day before then you wont be alive for the possibility of these things to happen to you the next day.
You can say one of two things. The longer a jock rides the greater the risk of injury becomes or the longer a jock rides the lesser the risk of injury becomes. And dont say each and every day that a jock rides that the risk level remains the same and so it is therefore neither greater or lesser, in as much as that is true the risk level of a single horserace will always remain.
And you know as well as I do Observer that some races espeacially the more bottom rung races are so full of sore, lame, hurting, medicated animals, and the 2YO races are so full of flimsey legged animals with nothing more then a green eyed ability to race that makes puts the risk factor in these races at a much higher level.
I beg your pardon but I dont think theres to many people able to tell me that horse racing is'nt a tradgedy waiting to happen.
And with that I'll tell you why I was so very much hopping for Lafitt to retire at 9,000 to no more then 9,200 wins. And that is because in the last 7 to 8 maybe 9 to 10, possibly even in the last 10 to 12 years he has been riding, Lafitt Pincay has accumilated almost all of his wins in the lower rung races, where the lesser horses and the lesser jockeys and the lesser trainers and the greater risk factors are all involved.
The man was winning and accomplishing his record on absolute crap and to accomplish the record that he did in the manner that he did it in is abolutely astonishing. And still even with the amazing level at which he preformed at, these pricecy dicecy high faloot'n trainers would not put the man on some of there best stock. I mean throw the man a healthy bone for gauds sake. But oh no, yeah, oh sure hes doing some amazing things with the more inferior stock hes been getting, but oh I dont know, even if the man is one of the best, that I can afford to put the man one of my best.
And so you have it imho, that Lafitt Pincay, while being given his homage but certinley not his due. Even while being at the very top of his game, has been relegated to scrap and scrape and unfittingly toil for every winner he got (when they should have been douled out to him, whens the last time you saw the man on a couple of quality horses that can put together a 5,6,7 race win streek) in the lower area of racing where the greater risks of danger are more apt to apply. Thats why I was terribly afraid for the man. My heart just went outside of me every time the man got up on a horse. And I can tell you this, hes a true sportsman, and I cant help it but I love the man and so its upon this that I was and am more concerned with his well being then with his 10,000th winner.
Like I said, with the heart this man had for the sport of racing< I understand why he had such a burning desire to win as well as to reach 10,000 winners.
Lafitt Pincay? He earned every winner he rode, and then some.
I only wish,well you know the rest

Julie Krone ? stupid, stupid move to come back.
Gary Stevens ? very bad decision to come back.

[Observer]

I didn't see the spill ... but it was my understanding that it was Tony Farina that caused the spill .. not some bottom rung, lame, sore horse that broke down .. afterall, didn't Farina receive days for the incident??

Throw Laffit a bone?? Laffit came to NY to ride Medaglia d'Oro to a game second place finish in the Wood Memorial last year, then kept the mount for the Derby. .. Oh, and Pincay also rode Millennium Wind to a win in the 2001 Blue Grass before taking a shot in that year's Derby. Do I think Pincay has been given his fair share of chances .. NO .. but don't overlook the fact that he's been riding in the Derby.

I have a lot more respect for riders who work for their accomplishments, as opposed to those who are handed the horses who are as close to sure things as you can get in this game.

[superfecta]

Did anybody notice that before he broke the record it seemed like he did ride an inordinate number of bad horses?I began to think he was almost blackballed in a way because nobody wanted him to outride 'Shoe.But since then he did get more live horses once he broke the record.And thats what made it even better IMO.I saw several rides that the horses ability didn't get the job done,it was him getting the most of what he had.Thats what makes him great.Getting the most out of questionable stock.Just hope he gets well,and if he has to retire so be it.

[freeneasy]

I think Observer that one of the points I tried to make was something like this, and that is, in the last 4 or 5 years with the way the man has been exceeding exellence in riding he should have been receiving more of the top stock then what he was. Top claimers, maidens, md. clm, alw. horses, hdc. and stk. horses. The man should have been one of the top 5 money earners for at least the last 5-6 years. Trainers should have been breaking down his agents door to get him on there mounts. And with all that maybe the man might be a whloe lot closer to the 10,000 mark. And maybe his persuit for that mark would not have seemed so important that he felt he had to take just about every single mount offerd. Yeah his mounts were improving bit by bit, but it just seems to me that had he been given his due he wouldnt have needed to be persuing the issue by force, but rather with a more safer patience. Such a great competative sprit and not a peep. I just think if he would have let some of the air out of the drive to reach 10,000, not to ride any less competatively, he would havebeen on a little bit more safer ground and perhaps this spill would not have taken its place.