Vince DeGregory was at Steve Miyadi Del Mar stable, with one hand running the business for young Adrian Escobedo and the other hand receiving the good feelings. Today, people start wishing DeGregory a happy birthday around August 1 and don’t stop until after the 29th, when he will celebrate his 92nd birthday in a racing life that has been well-documented and filled with colorful details.
To review: DeGregory was born in Saratoga Springs, NY, on August 29, 1932, nine days after War Hero won the 63rd Travers Stakes. DeGregory was a baseball prodigy in high school and was drafted by the Dodgers. He played the trumpet and formed his own dance band, and after a stint in the military, he fell in love with the racetrack. His father was a close friend of Eddie Arcaro, and it was Arcaro who introduced DeGregory to the life of a jockey agent, and it worked out well.
Seven decades and 11 Hall of Famers later, DeGregory was in Del Mar to help push a young rider who was excited about winning his 100th race, let alone making the Hall of Fame. DeGregory put Escobedo on four horses for the weekend for trainers like Doug O’Neill and Craig Dollase, in case anyone thought the agent was calling.
“I can’t imagine being 92,” DeGregory said. “I’ve had 15 surgeries and have arthritis in both knees. But I love being at the track and being around the horses and the people. I think it makes me feel younger. Otherwise, I think I would have died a lot sooner.”
We’ll let the ghost of Yogi Berra chew on that last one, but you get the idea. DeGregory was a true racing authority who saw the game’s storied history from the mid-1960s onward, starting with his years representing the rising star known as Angel Cordero Jr., who led the nation in wins in 1968.
“We came to Santa Anita in the winter of 1970, but there was a strike,” DeGregory says, referring to a standoff between pari-mutuel workers and management that delayed the opening by five weeks. “So we did nothing but work with horses. A friend took me to Hollywood one night, and that was all it took—dance halls, pretty girls. I wouldn’t leave California!”
“But then Angel said to me, ‘We have to go to Florida,’” DeGregory continued. “I said, ‘I’m not going anywhere.’ He left, and that’s when Laffit Pincay called me.”
Beginning in 1970, Pincay won five consecutive national stakes titles with DeGregory in his book, and in 1975 he was elected to the Hall of Fame. Along the way, Pincay took DeGregory’s only win in the Travers Stakes, his most famous race at Saratoga. The 155th Travers will be held on August 24.
“It was Bold Reason, for Angel Penna,” DeGregory said. “One of my favorite wins was for a very gentlemanly guy. Angel was soft-spoken, never demanding, and a heavy smoker like me. I learned a lot from him, and we became very good friends.”
Penna trained Bold Reason for William Levin, who purchased the colt for $52,000 from the stables of Captain Harry Guggenheim in 1969. Bold Reason was tied for weight with Canonero II among 3-year-old stallions in the 1971 Free Championship, and should not be confused with Bold Reasoning, a colt of the same breed.
With Pincay on his back, Bold Reason defeated Belmont Stakes winner Pass Catcher and Queen’s Plate winner Kennedy Road in the 102nd running of the Travers in front of a Saratoga record crowd of 30,011. As a stallion, Bold Reason sired Fairy Bridge, the dam of Sadler’s Wells. Bold Reasoning, also a major stakes winner, sired Seattle Slew, so we’ll call it a draw.
Bold Reason with Laffit Pincay Jr. after their win in the 1971 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
Pincay first rode Bold Reason and won the Hollywood Derby in 1971.
“Laffit had won so many races at that time, everyone came to him because they thought he had magic,” DeGregory said. “We knew it was the horse that made us all look good. But it was the best riders that made the difference in the last 20 yards of the race.”
In addition to Cordero and Pincay, DeGregory represents Hall of Fame members Bill Shoemaker, Jacinto Vasquez, Chris McCarron, Jorge Velasquez, Alex Solis, Darrel McHargue, Corey Nakatani, Victor Espinoza and Joel Rosario, who were inducted this year.
“I’ve been fired by a lot of Hall of Famers,” DeGregory said with a laugh.
And he was right. The splits with Pincay, McHargue, McCarron and Solis all made racing headlines, especially when they came after stellar seasons.
McHargue set a record for earnings in 1978 when he rode the Santa Anita Handicap (G1) winner Vigors. McCarron won the national title in prize money and wins in 1980 with DeGregory on his books. Solis had the best year of his emerging career in 1986, with a string of big wins aboard the 1986 champion 3-year-old stallion Snow Chief, when he fired DeGregory mid-season.
One common thread in their reasoning seemed to be that DeGregory was too demanding, too intense, and pushed them too hard.
“It can be, but it’s a tough game,” DeGregory said. “It deserves to be treated with respect, and you respect the game by always giving your best.”
DeGregory has no secret to his longevity, though he admits there is a fork in the road.
“I had one throat surgery after another,” he said. “Luckily, none of them were cancerous. When I woke up from the last surgery, the doctor said, ‘Vince, if you come back for another throat surgery, I’m going to cut out your larynx.’ A lightbulb went off. I was abusing my body, smoking three packs a day, drinking half a bottle of scotch a night, hanging around girls every night and hooking up. That was 46 years ago, and from that moment on, I changed the way I lived. Except for the girls.”
With the exception of Tony Matos, who turns 80 in November and is having a solid Del Mar summer with Edwin Maldonado, DeGregory has outlived legendary representatives from his own heyday, including Chick McClellan, Ivan Puhich, George O’Bryan, Bill Barisoff, George Hollander, Harry Hacek and Camilo Marin.
Now it’s memory, all the characters, but DeGregory isn’t ready to join them.
“As long as I can walk around the stables,” he said, “and the athletes accept me at my age, I’ll be here.”
