Gomez Primed for Fair Grounds Success

He came, he saw, he conquered. That’s the motto jockey Garrett Gomez hopes to follow on Road to the Derby Kickoff Day at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.

With five mounts on the undercard and a commitment aboard Wilkinson for trainer Neil Howard in the Grade III Lecomte Stakes, the California-based Gomez returns to New Orleans for the first time since 2008 when he won the Silverbulletday Stakes on Indian Blessing, the Grade II New Orleans Handicap with Circular Quay, and the Grade II Mervin Muniz Jr. Memorial Handicap on Proudinsky.

“New Orleans is great,” said Gomez, who will ride maiden runner First and Ten in the fifth race of the day, Apart in the $60,000 Louisiana Handicap, Bernie Flint trainee Sheer Beauty in the Dr. A. B. Leggio Memorial, Aide in the $100,000 Silverbulletday and turf sprinter Elsaroarin in the 11th for trainer Ronny Werner. “The city is a neat place to visit and the racetrack is great; a lot of guys go down there in the winter to get horses ready for the spring campaign so it makes sense for us to come in and ride a few if we have the opportunity.”

First and Ten, Apart, and Aide are trained by Al Stall Jr., with whom Gomez partnered to win the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic over Zenyatta with 2010 Champion Older Male Blame. Agent Ron Anderson said the relationship between the rider and Stall developed over the past two years as the Claiborne Farm runner took his path to prominence with 39-year-old Gomez in the saddle.

“They gravitated toward us and we gravitated toward them,” Anderson said. “I know Al’s a big fan of Garrett’s and Seth (Hancock) is, too, and of course we love Claiborne because they breed beautiful, nice horses that win races. A lot of it has to do with that comfort zone, too, the confidence factor that trainers and jockeys have with each other, and Al and Garrett obviously communicate well and see eye-to-eye.”

The last time Gomez and Stall teamed up was at Churchill Downs for the Grade I Clark Handicap and undercard races. Then, Apart ran eighth in the Clark and Aide finished fourth in the Grade II Golden Rod Handicap – both disappointing efforts considering that the 4-year-old son of Flatter had strung together three wins in the Prelude Stakes, the Grade II Super Derby, and the Grade III Ack Ack Handicap and the 3-year-old Arch filly had registered an allowance score at Churchill on Oct 31 by 19 ¾ lengths. But Gomez said he still has high hopes for both.

“We know Apart is talented, the question is how talented he is,” the jockey remarked. “In the Clark, just didn’t get over the track. He traveled well until I asked him to run and then he just fell apart for some reason. We know he’s got ability, he’s a good-moving horse, so hopefully he’ll rebound from whatever was going on.”

Aide’s issue in the Golden Rod was an extremely rank performance, but Stall is hoping familiar surroundings will help her relax in the Silverbulletday.

“I don’t really know what happened there; we have no physical excuse, nothing,” he said. “The time before when she won for fun she was just like loping along. This time, Garrett was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ his knees were straight out… we were all watching, I was like, ‘What?!’ We have absolutely no idea what went wrong. So we just brought her back down here, gave her a bit of a freshening, picked her back up, and she’s gonna run. Maybe it’ll help her walking right out of this barn to the paddock; we raced and returned from Keeneland that particular day, whereas when she won by 20 she came over with Blame and all those horses so she was there four or five days. She can be a little like that.”

Stall said both horses – and his maiden starter – are entered on Saturday to determine where they should be placed down the road.

“At this point in the year, some maiden races are a different strength than others, some allowance races are a different strength than others; you don’t know exactly where everybody stands,” he explained. “That’s what these races are for, to sort everybody out, and hopefully we can do that this weekend.”

Of course, having Gomez in town – a finalist for the 2010 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and already a two-time Eclipse Award winner – is an added bonus for local trainers like Howard, who lost Wilkinson’s regular rider Robby Albarado to a Jan. 2 heel injury. And the jet-setting jockey is always shopping for potential horses on the Triple Crown trail.

“We’re definitely looking to get on whatever we can get on right now in the 3-year-old division; it’s that time of year,” Gomez said. “We’re searching for the good ones again and hopefully we end up on a couple head like that.”