Garrett K. Gomez - Legal Troubles and Return

Legal Troubles and Return

After battling substance abuse issues and serving jail time in 2003, Gomez returned to riding in 2004. He was able to regain his previous success, and by the end of 2005, not only had he conquered his personal demons, he was one of the top go-to jockeys in the business. In 2005, he hooked up with Borrego, who gave him his first victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and his record third victory in the Pacific Classic Stakes, and on the two-year anniversary of his entering rehab, Gomez won two Breeders' Cup events, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy and the Breeders' Cup Mile with Artie Schiller. In addition to those successes, Gomez won the riding title at Hollywood Park in their spring-summer meet.

Then in 2006, jockey John Velazquez was injured in a riding accident at Keeneland, which meant that trainer Todd Pletcher needed a new top rider on the East Coast, and that turned out to be Gomez. Gomez took full advantage of the opportunity, winning 16 stakes races aboard Pletcher-trained horses, including five Grade I races. Thanks in part to those victories, Gomez led the nation in earnings for a jockey with over $20.1 million. He was a finalist for the Eclipse Award for the Outstanding Jockey, but was defeated by Edgar Prado.

Read more about this topic:  Garrett K. Gomez

Famous quotes containing the words legal, troubles and/or return:

    In the course of the actual attainment of selfish ends—an attainment conditioned in this way by universality—there is formed a system of complete interdependence, wherein the livelihood, happiness, and legal status of one man is interwoven with the livelihood, happiness, and rights of all. On this system, individual happiness, etc. depend, and only in this connected system are they actualized and secured.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    Taft, laughing, “What troubles [brother] Charles is, he is afraid Roosevelt will get the credit of making me President and not himself.” To Charles: “I will agree not to minimize the part you played in making me President if you will agree not to minimize the part Roosevelt played.”
    William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    The house waited on your private beach
    each day,
    when you had the time to return to her.
    And you so often had the time,
    even when fury blew out her chimney,
    even when love lifted the shingles....
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)