THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Local international horse broker on Laffit Pincay Jr. — ‘the greatest rider in our sport’

Ray Hussa has seen Secretariat in the flesh — back in 1982, nine years after he won the Triple Crown. 

“They let you pet the horses in those days,” Hussa recalled. “You can’t even get near a stallion now, because they’re worried about liability.” 

He’s been a Spokane Indians fan since age 10 — and remembers watching the Indians, including then-minor leaguers Maury Wills, Willie Davis and Frank Howard, beating the parent Los Angeles Dodgers in an exhibition game in 1959, a year L.A. would go on to win the World Series. 

Hussa remembers Coeur d’Alene having a horse-racing track — many, many, many years ago. 

And as the 152nd Kentucky Derby approaches, Ray Hussa remembers his favorite jockey, Laffit Pincay Jr. 

“In terms of jockeys, in my opinion, he’s the greatest rider in our sport,” Hussa said. 

LAFFIT PINCAY Jr. retired in 2003. At that time, he was horse racing’s all-time winningest jockey, with 9,530 victories. 

Ray Hussa still has Idaho ties. He operates Green Hill Stables, which has an Idaho LLC and is based in Lewiston. 

For years, Hussa and wife Caren English have lived in the Houston area, where he works as an international horse broker, and spends some time at nearby Sam Houston Race Park. 

Hussa writes a regular horse racing blog, of sorts, which he emails out to assorted racing fans and others.  

“I’m just a horse hack that writes a little thing here,” Hussa says, modestly. 

Most recently, through MyRacehorse, a horse racing ownership, Hussa owned a piece of Authentic, which won the Kentucky Derby in 2020.  

Pincay won the 1984 Derby, aboard Swale. 

Years ago, Laffit Pincay Jr. raced aboard some horses owned by Hussa and others. 

“All jockeys are courageous, but there is only one Laffit,” Hussa wrote recently on his blog. 

THE DEBATE was over who was the greatest jockey — Pincay, or Bill Shoemaker. 

(How could you go wrong either way?) 

Hussa, 77, chatted recently with Pincay. 

"Every year I go to the Permanently Disabled Jockey Fund event,” Pincay told him. “We have a good time and participate by signing autographs and taking photos with the fans."   

“The "Pirate" had a great career, and broke the win record of Shoemaker,” Hussa wrote. 

In his blog, Hussa mentioned fellow Idaho native Gary Stevens, another great jockey who went on to work in television. 

“Gary is world famous, and I’m kinda in the background,” Hussa said. “But we both started in Idaho.” 

Anyway ...  

“His interview with Laffit, back in the days when TVG was relevant, was perhaps the best dialog between the handsome and smooth-talking Stevens and a guy who is just as charismatic as Gary,” Hussa wrote. “It was the substance of the interview that ranks it in the realm of the best ever, right up there with Ali and Cosell.”  

AS FOR Saturday’s Derby, Hussa says his favorite to win is The Puma, “although I like Potente for Bob Baffert, Commandment and a couple others. For the 2027 Derby, we (at MyRacehorse) have two prospects which may run at Del Mar and Saratoga this year.”  

Obviously his friend Laffit Pincay Jr., now 79, won’t be aboard those prospects. 

However ...  

“He could get on a horse right now and win,” Hussa said. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports. 

    Courtesy photo Laffit Pincay Jr. autographed a copy of his autobiography for Ray Hussa and his wife, Caren, at Emerald Downs race track in Auburn, Wash.

    Associated Press Swale, with Laffit Pincay Jr. aboard, charges down the stretch on his way to winning the Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1984 in Louisville, Ky.