Alvaro Pineda

Horseracing personalities infobox
name = Alvaro Pineda


caption =
occupation = Jockey
birthplace = Mexico
birth date = November 9, 1945
death date = January 18, 1975
career wins = 2,731
race = Del Mar Oaks (1966, 1967, 1969)
San Gabriel Handicap (1966)
Frank E. Kilroe Mile (1967)
San Juan Capistrano Handicap (1967, 1968)
El Encino Stakes (1968)
Del Mar Handicap (1969)
Hollywood Gold Cup (1969)
Arlington-Washington Breeders' Cup Lassie (1973)
Malibu Stakes (1975)
awards = Leading rider at Del Mar Racetrack (1968)
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (1974)
honours = Handicap Alvaro Pineda - Hipódromo de Las Américas
horses = Figonero
updated = May 18, 2007

Alvaro Pineda (November 9, 1945 – January 18, 1975) was a Mexican jockey who competed in Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States.

A top jockey in California, in 1966 Álvaro Pineda finished second in wins at Del Mar Racetrack to Donald Pierce then was the track's leading rider in 1968. He made one one appearance in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 13th in 1967. Pineda's best mount may have been the Argentina-bred colt Figonero which he rode to victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup and to a new world record for nine furlongs in the Del Mar Handicap.

In 1974, Alvaro Pineda's peers voted him the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, awarded annually to a jockey in American racing who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.

In 1975, while competing at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, Alvaro Pineda was killed in a freak accident from a blow to his head when his horse, Austin Mittler, reared in the starting gate. His family would suffer a similar loss just three years later when his younger brother Roberto, a jockey competing at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, was killed as a result of an accident during a race on May 3, 1978.

References

* [http://jockeysguild.com/history.php Alvaro Pineda accident at The Jockeys Guild]