Laffit Pincay Jr.

     Laffit Pincay Jr. was born on December 29, 1946 in Panama City. He is considered the biggest Panamanian horse-racing pride. "The Corsair", as he is known since he arrived in the U.S. tracks, is a member of the American Horse Racing Hall of Fame, as well as in Panama.
     He made his debut on March 22, 1964, and won his first victory on March 28, 1964, with the same horse that debuted named "Huelen". The same year he won his first main event, "Clásico Independencia de Estados Unidos" with the horse “Alucinado II."
     Since 1965, he has been riding on the Presidente Remon racetrack in Panama City, he managed to enter to the elite group of riders who win over 200 races in a year, topping the statistics of riders with 249 victories in 696 opportunities.
     In Panama, he completed 1,395 rides, winning 449 races, 298 seconds, 216 thirds, 180 fourth places, and 258 times out of silver.
     In 1966, Pincay Jr. was hired by Fred W. Hooper, a prominent horseman, to ride and compete in races that were held in the United States. His first victory was on July 1, 1966, riding the horse "Teacher's Art", owned by Hooper, at Arlington Park in Chicago.
     His success in the United States can be summarized as follows: He set a record for most wins in a year by imposing 380 horses in 1971; He was inducted into the National Museum of Horse Racing and Hall of Fame in 1975 at 29 years old; He leaded all sums earned in the United States in seven times (1970 -1974, 1979, 1985), the horses that he rode generated revenues of $ 203 million; He won five times the "Eclipse Award”, top honor of American horse racing (1971, 1973, 1974, 1979 and 1985), more than any other rider in history; He got his win 8,834 on December 11, 1999 with "Nip Iris" in Hollywood to become the new leader among the riders in the world with the most wins in history, dethroning American rider Bill Showmaker who held a mark of 8,833 wins in his retirement in 1990.
     In 1980, Laffit Pincay Jr. was hired to ride the Mexican specimen “Pikotazo” at the “XIII Clásico Internacional del Caribe”, winning the race.
     He won four races of the U.S. Triple Crown: the Kentucky Derby "with" Swale "in 1984, the" Belmont Stakes” three times consecutive with "Conquistador Cielo" (1982), "Caveat" (1983) and "Swale "(1984).
     Laffit Pincay Jr. also won seven races of the millionaire series called "Breeders Cup": Classic for 3 million dollars with "Skywalker" in 1986, the "Distaff" twice, "Bayakoa" in 1989-90, the "Juvenile", three times with "Tasso" (1985), "Capote" (1986) and "Is It True" (1988) and "Juvenile Fillies" with "Phone Chatter” in 1993.
     On February 13, 2002, with the success of "STAGE PLAYER" in the second race of the day, the number of wins of Pincay Jr. reached the 9,300 dreamed goal victories.

     On April 29, 2003, almost 39 years after that first success, the Panamanian rider announced his retirement from the profession due to a physical injury caused in an accident while attending a horse race.

Ricardo y Alberto Gaitán

     They were born in Panama City, Republic of Panama.

     Since the age of nine, they began to study piano and singing.
     In 1989, they formed with his father and six more members, the group "Impakto" performing tropical music in bars and parties.
     In 1997, Ricardo y Alberto represented Panama in the OTI’s Song Festival in Peru. Then, they began to be known in the Panamanian musical entertainment as “Gaitanes”. This year they launched their first musical album "Entrégate", with works of composers as Omar Alfano and other Panamanians.
     In 1999, they joined Crescent Moon Co., whose directors are Emilio and Gloria Estefan, where they developed as singers, songwriters and producers. They recorded their second album, "Ricardo y Alberto", which highlighted themes were “Taca Taca”, “Mi amor no es un favor” and “De que nos vale”.
     Among the musical projects in where they have participated, there’s one with Marc Anthony and the Spanish version of "You Sang to Me" (Muy Dentro de mí). This song was awarded with the BMI and ASCAP prizes for Best Song of the year. They were also nominated for "Premios Lo Nuestro" and "Premios Billboard a la Música Latina".
     In 2004, they received a Grammy, a Latin Grammy and a Latin Music Billoboard nominations, being the only producers of “Travesía”, disc of the composer and singer Víctor Manuelle.
     In 2006, they released their third album titled "Monte Adentro," dedicated to Panama and their parents.
     In 2008, Ricardo and Alberto won two Grammys, one for the production of "90 Millas" (Gloria Estefan’s disc) as "Best Traditional Tropical Album of the Year" and another for the song “Píntame de Colores” as “Best Tropical Song of the Year”, also played by Gloria Estefan. In those same categories they won the “Billboard Latin Music Awards 2008”.
     They have done several projects with other artists who include: Ricky Martin, Paulina Rubio, Jon Secada, Thalía, Fernando Villalona, La India, Jennifer Peña, MSM and many others.
     For the 10th Latin Grammy Awards 2009, celebrated on November 5th, 2009, in Las Vegas, Nevada they were nominated in 7 categories. Among them, it was the song “No vale la pena”, played by the Puerto Rican Isaac Delgado, as best tropical song.

Margarita Henríquez

     Margarita Henríquez was born on April 17th, 1991, in La Villa de Los Santos, Los Santos province.

     She began her singing career with her father, Juancín Henriquez, and his typical music group.

     She won many prizes in folk song competitions in categories such as “saloma”, religious chant, “tamborito”, in the “Premios Zarate 2005” (Zarate Awards 2005). In the same year, she won "Proyecto Estrella 20-30”, a youth singing contest organized by the “Club Activo 20-30” of Panama, a non-profit organization.

     She was honored by her people as "Señorita 10 de Noviembre" in 2005, a patriotic celebration held at La Villa de Los Santos. Then, she joined MEDCOM, a local television network where she was co-host on a show called "Aires de Mi Tierra".

     Her greatest achievement was winning Latin American Idol 2008, a singing contest celebrated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, thanks to her talent and the support of all the Panamanian people. Each of Margarita’s interpretation was assessed by the jury as very good. We remember Jon Secada’s famous frase: "Bien canta'o, Margarita" (Well sung, Margarita). According to a local newspaper, Margarita won by 75.3% of the votes sent via cell phone to her competitor, María José Castillo from Costa Rica.

     Now Margarita has her first CD titled "Margarita" and has ambitious plans in the music industry. Good luck, Margarita!!!

Irving Saladino

   He was born on January 23th, 1983 in the province of Colon, Panama. Despite the fact that he grew up in a province known for its danger and poverty, Irving Saladino began his passion in sports participating in 1,500 meters races, instilled by his brother David. After a short time, he decided to leave the competition because the track was far away from his home and because other personal factors.

   When he turned 13, a professor convinced him to return to training. So Irving Saladino started his career taking Ivan Pedroso as a role model. At this time, Ivan Pedroso was a Cuban athlete who began achieving world success in long jump.
   He participated in the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, where he failed to qualify for the finals, primarily due to an injury suffered during training.
   His leap to fame was in 2006 when he won the silver medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow with a jump of 8.29 meters, only 1 cm of distance away from the winner, Ignisious Gaisah from Ghana.
   In the European Athletics Circuit, he has won five of the six tests that make up the Golden League. He won in Oslo, Rome, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin, as he was 2nd in Paris, just after Ignisious Gaisah, who had already defeated in the indoor world championship.
   In the 2007 World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, Saladino makes history by achieving the gold medal with a jump of 8.57 meters.
   On May 24th, 2008, during the meeting in Hengelo (Netherlands) Irving jumped up to 8.73 meters breaking his own record and getting the seventh best long jump in history.
   On August 18th, 2008 in 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, Irving Saladino won the gold medal in long jump. He made a jump of 8.34 meters, surpassing South African Khotso Mokoena (8.24 meters) and Cuban Ibrahim Camejo (8.20 meters).
   It´s the first Panamanian athlete who has won an Olimpic gold medal, and the second Olympic medalist from Panama. He’s also the first Central American male athlete who has won a gold medal in the Olimpic Games.