Three Hall of Fame jockeys relive memories

Cordero, Day and Pincay have been touring the country in advance of the Breeders’ Cup races on Oct. 24 and 25 at Santa Anita Park.

The trio always will be bonded by the controversial finish of the first Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1984. At the time, with a purse of $3 million, the Classic was the world’s richest horse race.

Wild Again, with Day up, withstood a long steward’s inquiry to win the 1984 Classic at 31-1 odds. Pincay, on Gate Dancer, was disqualified from second and placed third for lugging in on Cordero, and Slew O’ Gold, who was moved up to second.

“I have never been on a horse that tried any harder than Wild Again,” Day said.

“I tried to keep him (Gate Dancer) from lugging in while still trying to win the race,” Pincay recalled.

The three jockeys won a combined 23 Breeders’ Cup races. Day won 12, four in the rich Classic, Pincay won seven, and Cordero won four.

Cordero, Day and Pincay brought a lot of fond racing memories to an appreciative crowd gathered in the Wynn race book. Emcee Ralph Siraco of RaceDay Las Vegas asked each rider about winning his first Kentucky Derby.

“It was the happiest day of my life,” said Pincay, who won the 1984 Derby aboard Swale. Pincay had won seven Santa Anita Derbies, but none of those horses could win at Churchill Downs. It took a pickup mount from trainer Woody Stephens to get Pincay his first Derby.

“Before the race, I had a dream my late father told me I would win the Kentucky Derby if I stayed along the fence,” Cordero said. His rail-skimming ride in 1974 likely was the only way Cannonade could have passed most of the 23-horse field.

“I had been second three years in a row,” Day recalled. “To finally win (Lil E. Tee, 1992) was beyond my wildest expectations. I tell people the longer the wait, the sweeter the taste.”

After the question-and-answer period, the jockeys signed everything fans put in front of them.

Day and Cordero will join six other retired Hall of Fame riders Saturday in a Living Legends race at Santa Anita. The other jockeys will include Jerry Bailey, Sandy Hawley, Julie Krone, Chris McCarron, Gary Stevens and Jacinto Vasquez.

There will be pari-mutuel wagering on the Legends race. It will be race 4 at approximately 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

• BREEDERS’ CUP SEMINARS — Five Breeders’ Cup handicapping seminars will be held next week, and all are free to the public. On Wednesday at Arizona Charlie’s on Boulder Highway, Jerry Jacovitz of Jerry J’s Power Page will go over the five filly and mare stakes to be run on Friday. The seminar will begin at 6:30 p.m.

On Thursday, three more seminars will be held around Las Vegas. Richie Saber from Gaming Today, Ralph Siraco of RaceDay Las Vegas and Vic Viveo of Station Casinos will be at Palace Station beginning at 6 p.m.

Also at 6 p.m., Brian Blessing of Las Vegas Sports Consultants, Dan Shapiro from Lucky’s and myself will be at the Plaza downtown going over all 14 Breeders’ Cup stakes. And at 6:30 p.m. at Arizona Charlie’s on Decatur, Jacovitz will go over the nine Saturday Breeders’ Cup stakes.

On Friday, the Track Talk radio crew of Gordon Jones, John Kelly and Patrick McQuiggan will dissect the nine Saturday Breeders’ Cup stakes at 6 p.m. in the Sam’s Town race book.

• MEET AND GREET — The Orleans will host a meet-and-greet session with jockey Rafael Bejarano and trainer John Sadler on Monday in the race book at 9 a.m. There also will be a free $1,000 handicapping contest on the races from Philadelphia Park.

Richard Eng’s horse racing column is published Friday. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.