Baeza, Braulio
Horse racing
b. March 26, 1940, Panama City
Taller than most jockeys at 5-foot-5½, Baeza was dignified and elegant as a person and as a jockey, with a knack of getting the most out of horses without seeming to try. "The horses seem to want to run for him," Eddie Arcaro once said.
Baeza in 1967 became the first jockey to go over $3 million in purses in a year, with $3,088,888 on 256 wins in 1,064 starts. He was also the leading money winner in 1965 with $2,582,701; in 1966 with $2,951,022; in 1968 with $2,835,108; and in 1975 with $3,674,498.
The Eclipse Award winner as the year's outstanding jockey in 1972 and 1975, Baeza won four triple crown races. He rode Sherluck to victory in the 1961 Belmont, won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont on Chateaugay in 1963, and took a third Belmont victory aboard Arts and Letters in 1969.
Baeza retired from riding in 1976. In his U. S. racing career, he rode 3,140 winners in 17,239 mounts, an 18.2 percentage. He had previously won 873 races in Panama, giving him a total of 4,013 victories.