Career
A New Yorker, in 1931 Silvio Coucci rode Thoroughbreds at Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico under contract with brothers John and George Coburn. His performance brought him to the attention of the extremely wealthy Mistress Payne Whitney, owner of the prominent Greentree Stable in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Mistress
Whitney bought out Coucci"s contract and in 1932 the seventeen-year-old jockey burst onto the American racing scene with such success that he was being hailed as "The second Earl Sande." That year he rode Greentree Stable"s Easy Play to victory in the Spinaway Stakes and for owner Morton L. Schwartz was aboard Gusto for his wins in the 1932 American Derby as well as in the Arlington Classic which at the time had the largest purse of any American horse race. Coucci"s career continued to flourish and in 1934 his victories included the Christmas Stakes, in California and on the East Coast, New York"s Suburban Handicap. He wound up the year second in the jockey standings behind Wayne Doctorate. Wright then the following year was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings with $319,760 in purse money.
On January 5, 1942 TIME magazine reported that 27-year-old Silvio Coucci died as the result of a leap or fall from a hotel window in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
