As Front-Runner He’s Hard to Beat

There was only one comparison for Laffit Pincay Jr. to make after he stepped onto a whole new world of accomplishment.

When asked to describe his feelings after he rode Irish Nip across the finish line for his record-breaking 8,834th victory, Pincay said, “It felt like I won the Kentucky Derby all over again.”

What else could he say?

Horse racing has two icons: Churchill Downs and Bill Shoemaker. Now Laffit Pincay has triumphed over both of them. It’s the ultimate exacta.

Pincay’s run at Shoemaker’s record of 8,833 victories prompted some discussion as to where it ranked among sports’ other great records.

It really makes the most sense to put this achievement in the context of the track.

The Kentucky Derby means to jockeys what the Masters means to golfers and Wimbledon means to tennis players. And Bill Shoemaker’s 8,833 victories were to horse racing what Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs were to baseball and Wilt Chamberlain’s 31,419 points were to basketball.

They weren’t merely phenomenal numbers, they were linked to competitors as great as their sports have ever known, making the accomplishments of Hank Aaron and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that much more special. Same goes for Walter Payton outrushing Jim Brown and Wayne Gretzky scoring more goals and points than Gordie Howe.

And now it’s Pincay, riding past Shoemaker.

“I always thought that Shoe is the greatest,” Pincay said. “When you break the record of somebody that you think is the greatest rider, it’s really an honor. And for me, he was.”

You can make the argument that Pincay’s record is the most significant achievement in sports. If the object is to win, he has done it more than any athlete in any major sport.

Of course most other athletes don’t get the opportunity to compete six or seven times a day, as jockeys do. And it’s all but impossible for other athletes to stick around as long as Pincay, 52, has. For all of his efforts, the horses still did the bulk of the work in the 44,647 races it took for Pincay to break the record.

Each sport has its own advantages and challenges. So each record must be viewed against its own competition.

We ought to know better than to call any record unreachable. We might have watched Michael Jordan and Barry Sanders topple Abdul-Jabbar and Payton if they hadn’t retired this year.

Perhaps the style of hockey has changed too much to allow another player to score goals at Gretzky’s prolific rate, but there’s nothing to say future rule changes won’t lead to increased scoring.

We do know for sure that horse racing’s diminished role in the crowded sports marketplace is the reason Pincay’s record has not been as celebrated as, say, Mark McGwire’s pursuit of Roger Maris’ single-season home run record.

Trainer Bob Baffert believes there’s also some regional bias, that the event would have received more national media coverage if Pincay broke the record back East instead of on the West Coast.

Only 5,855 people were at Hollywood Park on Friday to witness Pincay’s history-making moment. A weekday afternoon before winter vacations kick in was not the ideal time to draw a crowd.

Pincay’s oldest son, Laffit III, is a sportscaster for a New York cable station and looked at it from a television perspective.

“The flip side of that is it should lead everything,” he said. “It’s not a Saturday or Sunday.”

Like some of the other folks at the track, Laffit III was skipping work to be there. He flew out Sunday morning, and had to wage some battles with his boss and go through human resources to extend his visit when his father failed to break the record earlier in the week.

“I’m thrilled that I stayed,” he said.

And he didn’t sound too worried about the missed work time.

“I’ve got plenty of comp days,” he said.

Most of the people in attendance were hard-core track regulars, but they sure didn’t act that way after the record-breaking ride.

They were clutching cameras, not the Daily Racing Form, as Pincay returned to the winner’s circle.

Some yelled out, “You’re the greatest, Laffit.”

They all pressed against the grandstand rails when he returned to the winner’s circle.

Surrounded by his family and the other jockeys, Pincay watched a video tribute from top jockeys shown on the giant screen near the tote board. Then he received a special award from Hollywood Park, and the Southern California tracks pitched in to give him a convertible Porsche Boxster.

I guess it’s a fair reward for riding so many thousands of horses: another 217 horses under the hood.

Pincay looked more excited by the gift he received during his news conference at the end of the racing day, when Hollywood Park’s head chef delivered a plate with steak and potatoes and a glass of wine.

Pincay has always battled his weight and he maintains a strict diet of 650 calories a day. Lunch is usually half a Powerbar.

Pincay’s plan to celebrate his special day was to munch on a steak.

“I’m going to chew every little piece,” he said. “I’m going to chew it 50 times.”

That’s an appropriate way to savor a moment that was the result of 35 years of diligent work.

He almost didn’t need the other reward. Porsche or no Porsche, the rest of the horse racing world will have a tough time catching up to Laffit Pincay.