Garrett K. Gomez - Recent Years

Recent Years

Gomez has continued to enjoy more success in the last few seasons. He won the Eclipse Award for the Outstanding Jockey again in 2008 and was a finalist for that award in both 2009 and 2010, and wound up winning four straight earnings titles until that streak was snapped in 2010. In 2008, Gomez had a chance to surpass the record for earnings by a jockey in one season, which is held by Jerry Bailey, but fell just over $10,000 short. It is likely Gomez would've broken the record, but he was injured in a spill at Santa Anita on the final Saturday of 2008 and had to miss the following race card where Proudinsky, who he was scheduled to ride, won the $150,000 San Gabriel Handicap.

In 2010 Gomez picked up his biggest win to date when he won the Breeders' Cup Classic with Blame, handing champion mare Zenyatta her first loss in the process. That marked his third Breeders' Cup win of the weekend, despite the fact he was injured in a spill just a day before the two-day Breeders' Cup program. Gomez also won the Stephen Foster Handicap and the Whitney Handicap with Blame, helping the horse get the Eclipse Award for American Champion Older Male Horse. Gomez also won his first riding title at Keeneland Race Course during the spring meet.

Gomez has also bagged some prestigious races outside of the United States in the last few years. At Woodbine Racetrack in Ontario, Canada, he has won the Woodbine Mile in both 2007 and 2009; the Northern Dancer Breeders' Cup Turf in 2008; the Canadian International Stakes in 2009, and the Nearctic Stakes and Summer Stakes in 2010. He has also won two big races in Dubai, the Godolphin Mile in 2007 and the Dubai Golden Shaheen in 2010.

In May 2012, he teamed up with Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award winner Rudolph Alvarado to write The Garrett Gomez Story: A Jockey's Journey Through Addiction & Salvation. The book captures the story behind Gomez' lifelong struggle to overcome his addiction to alcohol and drugs.