Matthew Pineda was only 3 years old when his father, Alvaro, lost his life in the starting gate.
"I only have glimpses in my mind of memories. I have a memory of my dad where I'm on the rail still in my buggy," Pineda said. "Unfortunately, the day that he died, I remember that clear as day."
An accomplished jockey from Guanajuato, Mexico, Alvaro had risen to the height of the national standings. He made his mark within the highly competitive Southern California colony, becoming the leading rider at Del Mar in 1968 and winning the Del Mar Oaks (G1) in 1966, 1967, and 1969.
The jockey rode into 1975 on a high with the 1974 George Woolf Memorial Award under his belt and a win in the Jan. 11 Malibu Stakes (G2) to start the year off.
The euphoria would not last.
Only seven days after his Malibu victory, Alvaro was mounted on a 3-year-old colt named Austin Mittler in a maiden race at Santa Anita Park when the horse reared in the gate. Alvaro was thrown up into the padless metal bars and endured a fatal fracture to his skull.
He was 29 and left behind his wife, Donna, daughter, Charlene, and Matthew.
"That morning he told me he was going to come home and take me on a pony ride, so I was waiting for my dad to get home all day... I remember when the doorbell rang and friends came to the door to tell my mom what had happened," Pineda said. "I was on the banister, looking down from the second story of the house. My mom dropped to the floor."
Joan Jones, wife of Hall of Fame trainer Gary Jones and a close friend to the family, recalled the fateful day.
"I remember we got a phone call because we weren't at the track that day," Jones said. "They said to get down to the hospital right away. Donna was further away, so she got there and looked at me, she's sobbing, and says, 'Tell me it's not true, I know it's not true,' outside of the hospital. Then we told her and she came unglued."
The Pineda family endured another racetrack tragedy three years later, when Robert Pineda, Alvaro's younger brother, died of head and neck injuries after a three-horse spill at Pimlico Race Course. He was only 25.
With his young life forever altered, Matthew Pineda would grow up with the racetrack engrained inside of him, always eager to learn more about his father.
"We were everywhere with them, (Matthew) and his dad, so there were lots of pictures, lots of videos," Jones said. "Matthew just loved coming here because I would give him something about his father every time he came. Anything that belonged to his dad, jockey silks... he wanted to know everything he could."
Pineda spent the following years determining how he could connect to his father through a career with horses.
"From my earliest days, I wanted to get back to being a part of what my father did. I wanted to be all about racing, and my way of doing it was to go to vet school," Pineda said. "I was passionate about the Southern California jockey colony, the Southern California racing circuit, that's where all our friends and family were... It was always on my mind because it was a part of my life. When you grow up in racing, it's always a part of you. The dream was always: How am I going to get back there?"
After attending Colorado State University and obtaining a degree in Equine Science, Pineda discovered that a career as a vet was not the right fit for him, and he took a job with Prince Ahmed bin Salman's Thoroughbred Corporation instead. Through connections with his first job, Pineda would find a career in mortgage banking and establish his own company, Castle & Cooke Mortgage, in Utah in 2005. Despite his success in the banking world, Pineda could still hear the humming of the Thoroughbred industry.
"About eighteen years ago, I was going through one of my dad's trunks, which I love to do," Pineda said. "It's fun, you open the trunks and it still has his smell and you can touch his saddles, his helmets, his goggles, his silks, his boots. It's overwhelming when you open it because you can just smell 1975. It's tangible.
"I'm going through his trunks and I find this 5x7 card and it had this gray horseshoe with a big, bold, number '7' and a black script over the horseshoe with the word 'Lucky' and underneath it, 'Stables.' "
Upon finding the logo, Pineda questioned his mother about its origins.
"She told me that he was 'passionate about the breeding side of it and the broodmares. He believed that all the best horses came from the best broodmares, and that's what he wanted to pursue,'" Pineda said.
He learned that his father, along with the late California veterinarian Dr. Jock Jocoy, had begun to buy broodmares in 1974 with a plan to send them to farms in Kentucky and race or sell the foals.
From that moment on, things clicked for Pineda. Despite owning quarter horses and competing in rodeo and team roping throughout his life, he had never returned to racehorses, perhaps because he was not sure how. Now he knew.
After years of searching, Pineda fell in love with a property in Midway, Ky. After he first saw the land in 2018, it was sold to another buyer, leaving Pineda heartbroken. He looked at other properties over the next two years but none could compare. In a twist of fate, the owners decided to sell the property and reached out to Pineda. By November 2020, Pineda had closed on the 150-acre property and started the move from Utah to Kentucky along with his sons Gage and Gunner.
"When I came here I wanted to start 'Lucky 7' in his honor... I didn't want to come into Kentucky and be some western, flash-in-the-pan, West Coaster guy, I wanted to be a Kentuckian," Pineda said. "This is my home and where I want to spend the rest of my life, in pursuit of my dad's dreams. (I asked myself) What do I need to do to be accepted into the community without leveraging one, his success, and/or two, his tragedy?
"I don't want to be welcomed for either one of them. I want to be welcomed and respected as a horseman because I have been one my whole life."
Pineda decided that the name Lucky 7 "was maybe not the right feel for this farm in particular. It didn't feel that way, and I knew it from the moment I got here."
Pineda's dear friend Jackie Frazier helped him come up with a name that fit. The word kismet comes from the Arabic word for portion or lot—qisma—and in English it's a synonym for fate or destiny. Thus, Kismet Farms was born. With its main focus set on being a broodmare nursery, Pineda's vision for his business will follow in the footsteps of his father.
"I want to be the exclusive boutique for clients who are passionate about their racing interests. Whether that be breeding Thoroughbreds to sell or to run, I want to appeal to clients who are interested in both," Pineda said. "I understand that there's a business element to it, but in a perfect world, I get the clients who love their mares and they want their mares here because they can feel our affection for them.
"I believe, just like my dad, that I don't have a business without the broodmares. They are what are creating our future. We breed these mares, we have these foals, we have a foundation and a future. I want to cater to clients that are excited about that."
Though the farm has not been established for long, Pineda has already earned the support of industry professionals such as Dr. Scott Morrison, a partner at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington.
"I went out and saw the farm and I thought it would be a good place to send some layup cases. It has a good atmosphere, it's very neat, clean, and quiet," Morrison said. "It seemed like a good place for horses to rest... The horses look spectacular. They're always well groomed and look well taken care of."
Morrison said he enjoys working with Pineda because of his horsemanship and his ability to communicate well with his clients.
"He's got a lot of history with horses and has been successful in many areas of the horse industry," Morrison said. "Whether it's riding or roping or just being a good horseman. He's also very mild-mannered and quiet around the horses, which I like. He's very good with the clients, and he's a great communicator."
In the future, Pineda says he hopes to own racehorses and be able to compete with Kismet silks. In the meantime, however, he will focus on putting his clients first and growing his inherited dream.
"My boys and I are in Kentucky, we live here. That's a dream. That's a full-circle dream. My dad was passionate about this state, he loved it," Pineda said. "He loved the history and what it meant. He loved the horsemanship behind what Kentucky horsemen did. This is where he ultimately wanted to be someday. In a sense, we've already accomplished something. We've already brought it full circle for that piece of it."
