Just before Thanksgiving in 1983, when I was away racing, she doubled up in pain and was rushed to the hospital. In 1984 Pincay had one of his best years, finishing third nationally with $10.9 million in purses. Linda was scared of guns but she knew I kept a loaded .22 in the closet for protection.Why she did it I suppose I’ll never really know, but I guess it goes back to her health. That night, I was in shock. After jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. won his first Kentucky Derby in 1984 (aboard Swale), he immediately phoned his wife to share the good news. I truly hope they do.I know a lot of people said I was not going to ride again, and at one point they were probably right. The daughter of the late William Radkovich, a construction magnate and racehorse owner, Linda was always her husband’s biggest booster. Maybe that was a clue.Also, she had this thing about dying young—perhaps because her mother died at an early age. When I got to the hospital, I was expecting the doctor to tell me she took some pills and that she’d be fine. Linda Pincay was married to Laffit for 17 years, having met the jockey through her father, the late William Radkovich, who raced horses.However, the Hollywood Division police report indicated that the Pincays were “estranged.” Linda had never fully recovered from a ruptured appendix she suffered about a year ago.Sgt. Maybe she was trying to tell me something. Laffit Alejandro Pincay Jr. was once flat racing's winningest all-time jockey, still holding third place many years after his retirement. Only Bill Shoemaker and Johnny Longden have more career winners. But she would tell me, “I know I’m going to have to go back to the hospital for more surgery.” She had had cesareans when our children were born, and she was terrified of surgery.We had never gone out to dinner very much because of my weight problem. When this happened, in those earlier days, I’d think, “When I go home, there’s nothing to look forward to. When she wanted to go out to eat, she’d go with her friends. I can’t drink or enjoy restaurant food, but she understood that and went along with it. Previous to Jeanine's current city of Maricopa, AZ, Jeanine Pincay lived in Temecula CA and Los Angeles CA. “Does this mean I can’t go with you anymore?” Linda asked. I went on like that for about three nights.Initially my kids took her death better than I did. “She was afraid that she’d brought me bad luck the other times,” he explains.Last week Linda was again absent from Churchill Downs, this time for a more tragic reason. They were really the ones who pulled me out of my tailspin. We realize that we’re all three a team now. I was so tired I didn’t have time to think and would fall right to sleep. On January 18, at the age of 37, she had put a gun to her head and shot herself. There was anger, too. At first neither could Pincay, as correspondent Suzanne Adelson found out when she visited the 38-year-old rider at his home in the Los Feliz section of L.A.In the beginning right after she died, I felt like the bottom had fallen out of my life. I felt helpless, alone, like I’d been swallowed up by a hole. Laffit Pincay III was born on December 8, 1975 in Los Angeles, California, USA as Laffit Alejandro Pincay III. They operated four days later.Linda was sick most of 1984 and never really the same again. Linda died 48 hours later, leaving behind an anguished husband of 17 years and two stunned children: Lisa, 15, and Laf fit Pincay III, 9.For the Panama-born jockey (whose 6,000-plus career victories put him second only to Willie Shoemaker), Linda’s death meant more than the loss of a companion and confidante.
I began to realize I’d been putting a lot of blame on myself. Then she’d come down again. Away from the track, I can’t imagine Laffit surviving without her,” said a fellow jockey on the day of the shooting. Lisa, knowing that her mother had a .22-caliber pistol in the room, is said to have been banging on the door, pleading for her mother to come out, when the shot was fired.Linda was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where her condition had remained critical.Besides Laffit and Lisa, she is survived by a 9-year-old son, Laffit III.
The housekeeper stayed in the kitchen as Lisa called the paramedics and then phoned me at the track. Some told me to go away for a while to get over it. All this has made us closer, and I enjoy coming home these days. Summary: Jeanine Pincay is 48 years old and was born on 08/23/1971. She lost all interest in racing, in going to the track, and she was very depressed. + Follow Something is wrong with me.” She just kept telling me she was a burden to everyone, and she was tired of it. But I told them, “I’m always going to have to come back. Pincay’s mother lives in the Los Angeles area, and the jockey spends almost every Tuesday--a day when local tracks are closed--visiting with her.Pincay’s close friend, Alvaro Pineda, was killed in a starting-gate accident at Santa Anita in 1975, leaving Pincay depressed for several months.“It’s going to be tough for Laffit to come back from what happened to Linda,” a Santa Anita jockey said over the weekend.