Travers winner jockey Manny Ycaza dead at 80
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Twotime Travers winning jockey and the winner of four riding titles at Saratoga Race Course, Manuel “Manny” Ycaza died Monday at the age of 80-years- old after a brief illness.
Ycaza was a native of Panama and was a pioneer for Latin jockeys in North America.
“Manny Ycaza was one of the pioneering Latin riders in America. He was a great jockey and an even better man, one of the truly great ambassadors or the Hall of Fame and the sport” said Brien Bouyea, the Hall of Fame and Communications Director at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. “I always looked forward to seeing Manny and his family at the annual inductions here in Saratoga.
“He had such a vibrant personality and he loved racing. He did some great things in the sport, especially here at Saratoga, winning multiple editions of the Travers and breaking a record for wins in a meet that had stood for almost 40 years. I will really miss him.”
His biography courtesy of the
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame states:
Manuel Ycaza was born in Panama in 1938 and became the first of many Latin jockeys to find considerable success riding in the United States.
The son of a bus driver, Ycaza began riding ponies at the age of 6 and was riding professionally in Panama at age 14. Ycaza then spent some time riding in Mexico before coming to the United States.
In his first year with Cain Hoy Stable, Ycaza won the 1959 D.C. International aboard Bald Eagle then came back the following year to become the only back-to- back winner in the history of the prestigious international race.
Hired by prominent Canadian owner/ breeder E. P. Taylor to ride for his Windfields Farm in the 1963 Queen’s Plate, Ycaza won Canada’s most prestigious race aboard the colt Canebora. A year later, he rode Quadrangle to victory in the 1964 Belmont Stakes to thwart the Triple Crown bid of Northern Dancer. In 1968, Ycaza rode Dark Mirage to the first ever Filly Triple Crown when they won the Acorn Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks.
Other major wins for Ycaza include the Travers Stakes (2), American Derby, Jerome Handicap, Kentucky Oaks (4), Suburban Handicap (2), Withers Stakes (2), Alabama Stakes, Arlington Handicap, Aqueduct Handicap, Bernard Baruch (3), Metropolitan Handicap, Champagne Stakes (3), Belmont Futurity (2), Saratoga Special (2), Blue Grass Stakes, Florida Derby, Tremont Stakes (2), Beldame Stakes, Hopeful Stakes, Santa Anita Oaks, Dwyer Stakes, Man o’ War Stakes, Strub Stakes, Diana Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap and Sanford Stakes, among others.
At Saratoga, Ycaza won four riding titles. He won 41 races at the Spa in 1959, breaking a record that had stood for 38 years.
Ycaza won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1964. He retired because of injuries in 1971, but came back to ride in 1983.
Manuel Ycaza was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1977.