Former jockey Vince “Jimbo” Bracciale passes
Frank Vespe
December 18, 2025
Vincent “Jimbo” Bracciale, Jr., a Maryland-based jockey whose more than 3,500 wins included two aboard the all-time great Ruffian and dozens more in graded company, passed away Dec. 15. He was 72.
In July 1974, with regular rider Jacinto Vasquez suspended, trainer Frank Whiteley, Jr. turned to Bracciale to pilot Ruffian in the Grade 3 Astoria at Aqueduct. The two-year-old Reviewer filly won by nine lengths in a stakes-record time.
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Vasquez returned to the irons for an easy win in the Grade 1 Sorority at Monmouth Park but was suspended again in late August when she raced in the Spinaway at Saratoga. Whiteley again turned to Bracciale, and the duo won with effortless ease by nearly 13 lengths.
“I had nothing to do for [Whiteley] most of the time, but every once in a while he’d have something for me,” Bracciale told This Is Horse Racing in 2024 of the trainer’s decision to use him on Ruffian. “He knew my father, who used to ride, and I had ridden a few for him in Maryland so he knew me, and I guess he thought I did a good job.”
In his career, Bracciale went on to win 3,545 races from 20,291 starters, generating purse earnings of nearly $38 million. According to Equibase, whose detailed statistics begin in 1976, Bracciale won more than 39 graded stakes.
He posted four Grade 1 victories from 1976 through 1989, when his career essentially ended (he had seven mounts in 1990 and one more in 1995). His Grade 1 wins included Hatchet Man in the 1976 Haskell Handicap, Majesty’s Prince in the 1984 Man O’ War, I’m Splendid in the 1985 Selima, and Broad Brush in the 1986 Wood Memorial.
After their win in the Wood Memorial, Bracciale and Broad Brush went on to finish third in that year’s Kentucky Derby.
Bracciale grew up in a racetrack family in Charles Town, WV. His father, Vincent Sr., began his career as a jockey, later turning to training there. Nearby neighbors included the Servis family, father Joe a onetime jockey-turned-steward, while sons John and Jason became trainers.
Bracciale remained a presence on the Laurel Park backside after his retirement from riding. Starting in 1992, he went on to train 31 winners from 318 starters. His final winner came in February 2024, when he sent out the Blofeld colt Square Slice to win a maiden claimer.
Social media tributes to Bracciale were plentiful.
“Amazing man and friend,” wrote exercise rider and former jockey Emily Fewster, adding, “Inspirational as a horseman and person. You will be missed.”
“He was loved and will be missed by many,” said longtime Maryland trainer Robin Graham.
“One of the all-time great riders but an even greater man,” added son-in-law Rick Trott, whose wife Natalie is one of five daughters (Lori, Stephanie, Niki, and Amy the others) of Bracciale and his wife Terri. “He’d tell you he won the biggest race in life with his beautiful loving wife and five daughters.”
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