Gomez nips Leparoux for money title

Last updated: 1/1/10 1:43 PM

Garrett Gomez profited from a pick-up mount in the last race at Santa Anita
(Benoit Photo)

It came down to the last race of the year at Santa Anita, and, in a bizarre
turn of events, all Garrett Gomez needed was for his pick-up mount to come out
of the gate Thursday in order for him to gain his fourth straight national purse
money-won title.

Cenizo (Value Plus), the 3-1 morning-line favorite in the 8TH race whom Gomez
had acquired when Martin Pedroza took off three races earlier, was victorious as
the heavily bet 4-5 choice in the $18,000 maiden claimer. He earned $10,800.

The result allowed Gomez, on the eve of his 38th birthday, to overtake Julien
Leparoux by $10,606 in the money race with mount earnings of $18,571,171 for
2009. Leparoux had earned $18,560,565 before returning to his native France to
be with his family for the Christmas holidays.

But when Gomez did little more than replace Pedroza while $194 shy of
Leparoux’s lead, the title became all but a fait accompli. Cenizo would have
earned a performance fee of $400 for merely coming out of the starting gate.

At day’s end, Gomez had joined Laffit Pincay Jr. (1971-1974) and Braulio
Baeza (1965-1968) as riders to have won the money championship four consecutive
years. Bill Shoemaker holds the record of seven successive years, 1958-1964.

“To have to go down to actually my last mount of the year is unreal,” Gomez
said following his 1 1/4-length win aboard Cenizo for trainer Julio Canani. “I
was lucky enough to pick up the winner. I was hanging around the (jockeys’)
room, hoping to pick up something, and Martin (Pedroza) didn’t feel well.”

Earlier, it seemed Gomez had been rebuffed in his title bid when his mount in
the 2ND race, Red Arrow (Aus) (Red Ransom), finished last among six entrants in
the featured $54,354 optional claiming event at 5 1/2 furlongs to earn no more
than the $400 performance fee.

Gomez’s only other scheduled mount was in the 4TH race. And even though 6-5
choice Fund Raiser (Harlan’s Holiday) was a handy winner of the maiden special
weight competition, the first prize of $26,400 wasn’t quite enough to overcome
the outcome of the second. He had fallen $194 short. Or so it seemed, at the
time.

In reflecting on his best moment of 2009, Gomez said, “It was probably the
Woodbine Mile (Can-G1) with Ventura. Her race at Woodbine was just phenomenal
and at the time, Bobby Frankel (Ventura’s trainer, who died on November 16) was
very sick. (Agent) Ron (Anderson) called him, and said Bobby was very happy and
that meant a lot to us. It’s been a great year.

“I feel we can win the title again,” said Gomez, reflecting optimism for
2010. “We’re on top of our game and we’ve got a lot of really good people
supporting us. Some of our big horses have gone by the wayside, so Ron and I are
looking to replace some of those horses. It’s a great position to be in.”