Sibille wanted a jockey’s life, and made the most of it on the national scene

By RAYMOND PARTSCH III, Written for the LSWA
Shreveport Bossier Journal

Ray Sibille never wanted to do anything else.

His earliest childhood memories were of him and his brothers taking turns racing their daddy’s match race horses down the narrow dirt road to their family home in Sunset, and watching the thoroughbreds gallop around the original Evangeline Downs race track in Carencro.

“We couldn’t get in,” Sibille said. “So, my daddy parked the car by the fence. And we all just stood on top of the car to watch the races. That was the highlight of my week.”

All those nights spent at Evangeline Downs only reinforced what Sibille wanted to do with his life.

“I’ve never had a second in my life that I didn’t want to be a jockey,” Sibille said. “It’s the only thing I wanted to do.”

Sibille rode 4,264 winners in a 35-year racing career highlighted by winning the $2 million 1988 Breeders’ Cup Turf race at Churchill Downs.

Sibille will add another distinction when he will be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame as one of the members of the Class of 2024 in Natchitoches. He is among 12 state sports heroes to be honored this weekend in Natchitoches. For participation opportunities, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.

“He could ride anything,” friend and fellow LSHOF jockey Eddie Delahoussaye said. “He was an outstanding judge of pace and work ethic. That plays a big part in your career. Ray had it all.”

Sibille becomes the latest jockey born and raised in Acadiana to be inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. The Sunset native joins Catahoula’s Calvin Borel (2017), Carencro’s Ronald Ardoin (2013), Lafayette’s Mark Guidry (2012), Erath’s Randy Romero (2005) and New Iberia’s Delahoussaye (2002).

Like all those other Baby Boomers from Acadiana, Sibille earned his stripes racing local bush tracks.

“It taught you about the balance and feeling of a racehorse,” Sibille said. “It taught you how to ride, how to whip and stay in motion with the horse. When you first start, you’re working against the horse because you are trying to figure out how to do it.”

He added: “For those guys that were raised in the city, they didn’t start riding until they were 16, and they had never rode before. Well, all of us Cajun riders were way ahead of them because of that experience.”

Sibille also gained valuable experience working at the track.

He got his first job at 16 working for trainer Buster Leger and he would spend his mornings working out the horses at Evangeline Downs before going to class all day at Sunset High School.

Sibille quickly established himself as one of Louisiana’s best jockeys but he saw his career skyrocket in 1973 thanks to his agent “Jimmy” Paul Daigrepont presenting an opportunity to race for the majority of the year at the Chicago area tracks — Sportsman’s Park, Hawthorne and Arlington Park.

Arlington Park was the scene of 931 wins for Sibille, including his first major victory — a $100,000 stakes race atop Pocket Zipper for trainer Richard Hazelton. Even though he would still spend his winters racing in Louisiana, Sibille credits his time in Chicago to developing him.

“When I went to Chicago, I rode a lot of better horses,” said Sibille, whose brother-in-law is five-time Preakness Stakes winner Pat Day, who will attend the LSHOF festivities. “I rode good horses here, too, but not like what they had there. You just have the confidence, knowing that you had such a good horse that if you don’t fall off, you are going to win.”

Sibille made another career move in 1981 when a six-week trip to California turned into 13 years, as he became a fixture racing at Santa Anita, Del Mar, and Hollywood Park. The move also reunited him with his old friend Delahoussaye and he raced against some of the best jockeys of the 1980s, including Kentucky Derby winners Bill Shoemaker and Chris McCarron.

“The year Ray came over to California we had the best colony of riders in the United States,” Delahoussaye said. “To compete against those guys day in and day out, even if you were the fifth or 10th on the list, you were doing well in that environment.”

During his time in California, Sibille would win major races such as the 1981 Yellow Ribbon Stakes and the 1988 San Juan Capistrano Handicap. The humble Cajun with a slight stutter also found himself rubbing elbows with celebrities such as Tim Conway and Jack Klugman at Beverly Hills parties and he even met President Ronald Reagan.

“It was surreal because they were asking me questions,” Sibille recalled. “They wanted to know about what I did.”

In 1988, Sibille began riding Great Communicator for former Louisiana Public Service Commissioner George Ackel and Ackel’s son, Thad, who was the trainer. The victories piled up quickly as Sibille rode Great Communicator to wins at the Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes, San Juan Capistrano Handicap, San Marcos Handicap and San Luis Obispo Handicap.

That all led to the Breeders’ Cup that November at Churchill Downs. Sibille rode Great Communicator in a controlled moderate pace and held off Sunshine Forever for a half-length victory.

“You are playing in the major leagues at that point,” Delahoussaye said. “It is a pinnacle race. To achieve a goal on that special day is the icing on the cake for a rider. Ray rode that horse perfectly.”

Delahoussaye added, “I worked that horse before Ray rode him, and I couldn’t get along with him. A lot of people think you can just ride a horse, but that’s not the way it goes. It is a lot of interaction sometimes you don’t have. Thad went to another Louisiana boy, that was Ray, and the rest is history.”

After injuries forced him to retire in 2004, Sibille won the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which honors riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of thoroughbred racing.

“He is a class act guy,” Delahoussaye said. “His work ethic is what made him achieve his goals. He still loves his sport. He still works at the track clocking horses. He loves being involved. You could talk to anyone about Ray and they won’t have anything bad to say about him.”

Contact Raymond at sportswithRP3@gmail.com