Laffit: All About Winning

Laffit Pincay Jr. was more than just an incredible athlete. Laffit Pincay Jr. was an athlete that all young men and women should take more than a few pages from his playbook in regards to his discipline, his training and diet regime, his steadfast approach to never taking a day off, let alone a race off (when he is racing) and his focus (eye on the prize) was unmatched.

This documentary does a decent enough job in highlighting Laffit's horse riding/racing career from when he won his first race as a teenager in his homeland of Panama, through to his winning some of North America's most prestigious and richest horse races, including winning 2 out of 3 of the USA's triple crown races at least once. (He never did win the Preakness).

It was very nice hearing many of Laffit Pincay's fellow jockeys speak so highly of the Hall Of Fame jockey and his competitive spirit. The documentary included quite a few conversations and anecdotes with Laffit himself outlining many of his dangerous accidents which included multiple fractures and broken bones. Most interesting was the request Laffit's own mother made of him which was both weird, and wacky but it seemed to work for the most part of Laffit's racing career. Laffit's mother asked him to always wear his underwear "inside out" when riding. No, his mother was not kidding. She said it would keep the demons away while he was racing.

My only negative comment about the film was it did not provide little or any credit to Laffit Pincay's agent(s). Unlike other sports, where the athlete's agent responsibility begins and ends when they get the most lucrative multi year contracts for their athletes, jockey's agents need to know which trainers, horse owners (including racehorse owner consortiums), race tracks, will provide not only tomorrows mounts for the jockey(s) they represent but the next meets, next stake races, the next potential Horse of the Year mount, such as Laffit had for a few years when he rode the great thoroughbred, Affirmed. It would have been nice to hear from some of the agents who represented Laffit over his 39 year racing career what they thought of representing one of the greatest jockeys and athletes of this last century.

I give the documentary a decent 7 out of 10 score.

When you consider the scope and success of Laffit's career, you have to put him in that elite class of athletes with Tiger, MJ and Brady. This incredibly inspirational documentary finally gets it right, giving this great sports figure his due and providing an insightful and compelling look at what it takes to win in a sport that allows no room for mistakes. The arc and structure are right on and take you for a ride like only Jim Wilson and Kevin Costner can. I don't claim to be the biggest racing fan either but I loved it! Any sports fan can appreciate a story showcasing the sacrifice and determination needed to succeed. Just awesome!!!

What a nice tribute to an outstanding athlete: jockey Laffitt Pincay Jr.. Being a horse racing fan for many years, Pincay was a familiar name to me, as were 98 percent of the other people in this documentary. However, I had little knowledge of the man.

Little did I realize what an incredible physical specimen and disciplined human being this guy was and what lengths we went to do stay that way for 39 years in his profession. How many other athletes, it is asked here in this film, are on the top of their game for 39 straight years?! Nobody but Pincay.

A bunch of famous jockeys, a few top trainers (D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert heading the list), horse owners, celebrities, reporters and others all explain why Pincay was so good at what he did. Better yet, they showed us. There is a lot of racing footage in here, and it shows some losses and horrible spills as well as the big victories. The latter, obviously, gets more play, as it should.

You'll meet Laffit's amazing family, too, and be moved at the end when the famous Panamanian is given a special day in his honor at Santa Anita racetrack. All in all, for a horse racing fan, this is great stuff!