The Maryland Jockey Club is saddened to learn of the passing of Vincent "Jimbo" Bracciale, Jr., a beloved jockey, trainer, horseman, mentor, and friend.
Bracciale died on Dec. 15 at the age of 72. The Maryland Jockey Club will honor his memory with a moment of silence and a video tribute after Saturday's first race.
A hugely successful jockey in Maryland, Bracciale rode 3,545 winners, captured two Laurel Park riding titles (1972, 1980), and won three more at Pimlico (1973, 1977, 1979). In 1973, he set a Pimlico record by winning 87 races in a 60-day meeting.
As a 20-year-old, Bracciale won six consecutive races on a single card at Bowie Race Course.
Substituting for regular rider Jacinto Vasquez, Bracciale guided the legendary Ruffian to two graded stakes victories, including the Grade 1 Spinaway at Saratoga, during the Hall of Famer's undefeated 2-year-old season in 1974.
"I've ridden some good horses," Bracciale said in an interview in 1988, "but there was nothing to compare to her."
Bracciale also finished third in the 1986 Kentucky Derby aboard the popular Broad Brush. That year, he won the first jewel of Canada's Triple Crown, the Queen's Plate, aboard Golden Choice.
As a contract rider for the renowned Greentree Stable, Bracciale partnered with the popular Hatchet Man.
"My biggest win on Hatchet Man was in the [Grade 1] Haskell in 1976, when he beat Forego and Intrepid Hero," Bracciale noted in a Laurel press release on Nov. 24, 1980. "Forego went on to be voted Horse of the Year for the second or third year in a row."
While Ruffian was the best horse Bracciale ever rode, he admitted in that press release that his favorite horse was a veteran gelding named Lexington Park.
"He always tried hard," Bracciale said. "I must have won 19 or 20 times on him, yet he had a lot of problems. He was hard to ride, but had a lot of class."
Bracciale also won Grade 1 races with Broad Brush, I'm Splendid, and Majesty's Prince, and was the subject of a feature story in the Dec. 20, 1973, edition of Sports Illustrated.
Writer Frank Deford noted that Bracciale "potentially is the best U.S. jockey since Willie Shoemaker and Bill Hartack appeared a quarter of a century ago and is more articulate than the one, more genial than the other. He is, in fact, a beguiling fellow, properly shy and polite, even candid."
Injuries cost Bracciale several live mounts. He rode Pleasant Colony before being sidelined by a shattered forearm. Pleasant Colony won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1981 under Jorge Velazquez.
Bracciale had a warm spot in his heart for the crack sprinter Dave's Friend.
"Dave is the only horse I've ever been on who ran damn near every step of the way at 6 furlongs," he told writer Dick Jerardi in the Thursday, April 28, 1984, edition of Sportsfirst. "I rode Ruffian twice, and she won so easily that I have no idea how good she was. Dave seemed to have another gear to use at any time. He would literally do anything I asked him to do in the morning or during a race. He is the kindest horse I've ever been on. The last few times I rode him, I would come back with tears in my eyes. I've never had a horse respond like he did."
"I really don't remember how he got the nickname Jimbo," said Vincent's mother, Jeanette Bracciale, in the Tuesday, Feb. 13, 1973 edition of The Evening Sun. "It was confusing because both he and his father are named Vince. We couldn't call one little Vinny and one big Vinny, because they were both small, so somewhere along the way we started calling him Jimbo."
An accomplished athlete, Bracciale received several college scholarship offers due to his prowess in amateur wrestling.
Bracciale embarked on a training career between 1992 and 2024, winning 31 races.
When Bracciale retired from riding in 1990, former Pimlico general manager Chick Lang was quoted in a Baltimore Sun article, saying, "Jimbo has been an institution in Maryland racing."
