Álvaro Pineda

Álvaro Pineda (1945 to 1975) was a Mexican jockey who rode thoroughbreds in the United States and became a top rider in California. In 1966 he finished second in wins at Del Mar Racetrack to Donald Pierce, and in 1968 he was the track's leading rider. He made one appearance in the Kentucky Derby, finishing thirteenth in 1967. In 1974 his peers voted him the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, given each year to a jockey in American racing who shows high standards of personal and professional conduct on and off the racetrack. In early 1975, while riding at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, he was killed by a blow to the head when his horse Austin Mittler reared in the starting gate and flipped over, crushing his head against the steel frame of the gate. His younger brother Roberto, also a jockey, died in 1978 after an accident during a race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.