Each month we’ll take a trip to the backstretch and visit with a different jockey or trainer. Garrett Gomez, the 2007 and 2008 Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Jockey, is our featured guest in September.
Gomez, who has led all North American jockeys by earnings the past four years, has won major races across the continent. A native of Tucson, Ariz., Gomez resides in Duarte, Calif., with his wife Pam, son Jared, and daughter Amanda.
Q: How were you introduced to horse racing?
Gomez: I grew up at the racetrack. My dad rode in New Mexico for 20-something years at tracks like Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Ruidoso. My mom went into labor at the track, so they had to get her to the hospital. I wasn’t born until almost midnight, but her labor started at the track.
Q: You won this year’s Sword Dancer Invitational with Telling for trainer Steve Hobby, whose father Gerald gave you your first mount in a race. Can you tell us more about your relationship with the Hobby family?
Gomez: His dad was in New Mexico for a number of years, and I worked for his dad when I first started working around the track. His dad was great. He was a great teacher and didn’t get upset, unless you did something really wrong. I remember when a horse got loose one time because I forgot to put the webbing back up, but he didn’t get mad. He let you learn from your mistakes and he took time to talk to you.
Q: Where else did you ride before you found success on the national stage?
Gomez: I rode in Phoenix, Arizona. I rode in Nebraska at Ak-sar-ben and at Fonner Park and in Oklahoma at Remington Park. Laurel, Pimlico, that kind of thing.
Q: When you started your career, did you imagine you’d be winning Grade 1 races in New York someday?
Gomez: Yeah. That was the idea. That’s why we’re in the game. If you don’t have that attitude, you’ll never make it. I had always seen myself doing what I’m doing. Everybody’s roads are a little different. Mine had some bumps and some tribulations, but I wouldn’t change anything.
Q: You won some big races not long after you moved your tack to Southern California. How much did that help you advance your career?
Gomez: It’s important no matter where you go. It catches people’s attention and people start to recognize you. You always have to prove yourself, no matter what. You have to prove yourself on a daily basis. If you don’t, they look elsewhere.
Q: Was it difficult reestablishing yourself when you made your comeback in late 2004?
Gomez: It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it’d be. Actually, my career took off better than ever. Once people started to give me rides, one thing led to another and my horses continued to win.
Q: In 2005 you came East and won the Jockey Club Gold Cup with Borrego and the Cigar Mile Handicap with Purge. Did that help you gain recognition outside California?
Gomez: I’m sure it did. I came back after the Gold Cup and won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy, and I won the Mile with an East coast horse, Artie Schiller.
Q: The following year you came East to ride for Todd Pletcher when John Velazquez was hurt. At the time did you think that trip was a one-time occurrence, or did you think you’d be making routine ventures to New York?
Gomez: I thought the whole move was going to be a temporary thing. The idea was to ride out here until Johnny came back. I planned to go back home and ride on the West coast and be with my family, but it’s turned into an every year thing. Our plans change day by day, and you just roll with what’s going on.
Q: How do you decide where you’ll spend the summer?
Gomez: Every year it changes. Sometimes it depends on where my stakes horses will be headed and whether or it will be easier to travel from home or from the East coast. Home is California and it’s hard to leave home all the time. I have two kids and they are seven and nine right now. It makes it difficult.
Q: In 2008 you swept two Grade 1, $1 million races on opposite sides of the country in a two-day span, winning the Travers on Saturday with Colonel John and taking the Pacific Classic on Sunday with Go Between. What was that like?
Gomez: It was phenomenal. I won a race for WinStar here with Colonel John and I flew home with them, then I beat them with Go Between in the Pacific Classic. It was bittersweet: sweet for me, but bitter for them. But their horse Well Armed came back and won the Dubai World Cup, so it was great for all of us.
Q: You won the Travers by defeating Mambo in Seattle in a head-bobbing photo finish. When you hit the finish line, did you think you had won?
Gomez: I knew it was close. A lot of times when you see a jockey put their arm in the air like Robby Albarado did, you think they pretty much know. I thought it was closer than that, and I thought I got a pretty good bob. I knew my horse was behind them a little bit, but when you’re riding that close it’s hard to tell exactly where the wire is. I’ve won some photos I thought I didn’t, and I’ve lost some photos I thought I won. That’s why they take a picture upstairs and don’t leave it to us to say who won.
Q: Is it difficult adjusting to the different track layouts when you compete at racing venues all across North America?
Gomez: Not really. Racing is racing. Each track plays a little bit different. We ride inner grass and out grass here, and have a 1 1/8th-mile main track. On the inside turf course it feels like the stretch is longer, but that’s because the turns are tighter. You have to position yourself on any track, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the horse. They’re all ovals – some are just bigger than others.
