ESPN Garrett Gomez Blog

ARCADIA, Calif. -- It's always a little bittersweet for a jock to see a horse he's done well with go to stud. You know you'll never ride him again and you think of all those times you did and the different trips you got, the ways you worked together to make it to the winner's circle, and it's kind of sad. But then you remember that in a couple of years you'll have the chance to ride new colts and fillies that are hopefully just as talented and maybe more talented than he was -- and that's the exciting part.

I was thinking about that the other day when WinStar Farm announced that Colonel John was retired. I rode him in his first start and I rode him in his last start, and we had a lot of successes in between. He's just one of those racehorses that exudes class; he's really laid back and he knows he's the man. You just sit on him and you know he's a good horse. From his conformation to his demeanor and stride, he's just the whole package, he really is.

The first time I rode him was at Del Mar. He should have won that day; it was his first time out so no one was quite sure exactly what to do with him yet. I kind of just had to ride the race as it came up. We finished a solid second then, and I knew he'd be a runner.

I was riding back in the Midwest and on the East Coast after that race, so that's why I didn't ride him in his next couple of starts. It took me a little while to get him back when I came back to California, but he was the kind of horse I hoped to do well on -- he was big as a 2-year-old and very athletic, and we knew sooner or later it was all going to come together for him.

Once he had a race or two in him, he was agile enough, and had enough coordination, to break his maiden and get a stakes win under Corey Nakatani, then he finished second in the CashCall Futurity with Corey. I rode him to a win in the Sham Stakes, which was a Grade 3. So all that time he was running very well on the different synthetic tracks out in California, and even though he finished out of the money in the Kentucky Derby he came back two starts later and gave me an amazing run to win the Travers in 2008.

In that race he was standing good and he just kind of hopped a bit at the start. I was in the two hole and I didn't really want to give up my position so I sent him up in there and it didn't take him long to get back into the race and get his legs up underneath him. He always traveled really well, but in that race I never was in a really good spot for a young horse -- we were all fighting for one or two holes that weren't really there and at one point we had three horses where only two should have been.

So we kept battling in there and we turned for home. He got banged around a little when we hit the turn and I got jostled around and jumped heels a bit, but I was able to get him out in the clear and then he kicked in and got down to the wire -- the last sixteenth-of-a-mile Colonel John and Mambo In Seattle came down there fighting hard. He ran a really game race that day because it wasn't like a race where everything went his way; he didn't get a really sweet trip.

Of course that race was a super-close photo finish but as soon as we hit the wire, Robby Albarado put his hand up in victory. When another jock does that, very seldom is he wrong, so I thought, maybe he did get it. It sort of took the steam out of me but I was like, just let me hang back here and see how it all sorts out, maybe he was wrong.

So I took my time on the backside, and while jogging back I had come around the bend and had let him start to gallop and just as I got right in front where I could actually see the tote board, they hung my number up.

The Travers has been around so many years and there's a lot of history in that race -- obviously it's a big deal on the East Coast and a very prestigious event -- so I was glad to actually be able to win it with him. It's kind of like the Derby where these horses have only one chance to run in that race, and most of the time it's the best horses of the 3-year-old season that compete in it. Believe me, I enjoyed having those flowers draped around his neck.

The rest, as they say, is history. They tried him on the turf and he won on that too. I think that just tells you he's a pure racehorse, because it didn't matter what they ran him on, he ran on all of them. It's really pretty cool. I think he probably could have ended up a Grade I winner on the grass, a miler or something like that, I think he was good enough to accomplish that kind of a win. He just wanted to win. He was a horse who would figure out a way to get in front, whatever it was, and he'd do it fast, too.

In the Breeder's Cup Classic I was disappointed because it was one of those trips you only dream of having -- I got around there and we were down on the inside in the first turn and in the middle of the turn I cued him to go after the leader a little bit, and he followed for six or seven jumps but when I opened up on him from behind he wasn't there, I just didn't feel it, and I knew right away, "Oh, I'm in trouble." He still stayed on good enough to wind up running fifth and of course it wasn't one of his best races, but you can't knock him for trying. His other wins prove he had it in him more often than not.

He was a great horse to ride and he was really good to me and my family, so like I do with all the good runners I ride, I'll keep an eye on him and wish his connections the best for his new career. He's definitely a horse I'd take a mare to!

ARCADIA, Calif. -- When we saw Mikey and Zenyatta win the Breeders' Cup Classic, coming back through the crowd and the energy and the excitement, it was with mixed emotions. I'll have to admit that Saturday was a little disappointing for me personally, but when we got back in the room Alex Solis and I started discussing it a little bit and we were like, you know, that was really cool, to be there, to be a part of that. It was one of those If I didn't win I'm glad they did kind of things.

For me, Saturday could have been a really, really good day. It was a good day anyway, but I got beat in the Sprint by not even a head - maybe half a head. I got two seconds in the Juvenile and the Mile with Lookin At Lucky and Courageous Cat, a third in the Dirt Mile with Midshipman, and two fourths in the Turf Sprint and Sprint with Delta Storm and Gayego. Of all my horses, pretty much the only one that ran way back was Codoy in the Juvenile Turf. So it was a little bit of a letdown because all my horses ran so good, but we just couldn't get to the winner's circle.

Even in the Classic, I got out at like the five sixteenths pole and at the quarter pole Colonel John just never kicked in. I asked him to run and he kind of came back in my face a little bit, which leaves you scratching your head because he's run great races on all the surfaces and I guess he just wasn't feeling up to it that day.

But like I said, when me and Alex were talking about it back in the room, we remarked upon how nice it is for our industry to have a horse like Zenyatta who actually has the crowd following her. It's great for the sport and she was great Saturday - to be 13 for 13 and show up at the Breeders' Cup to face the best that the males had to offer in the Championship race; it's supposed to be the best of the best and for her to beat them that day was just amazing. It was awesome to see her remain undefeated and become a part of history as the first filly or mare to ever do something like that.

Everybody will throw their two cents in about who should be Horse of the Year and my belief is that if she hadn't won the Classic, the other filly, Rachel Alexandra, would have gotten it. But Zenyatta showed up on Championship day in the biggest race we have against the toughest field we're supposed to have all year long. It was tougher than the field Rachel beat in the Woodward against older males, it was tougher than the races with 3-year-olds alone, and this mare showed up.

There was no reason for Rachel not to show up; her connections decided not to run her. If the Breeders' Cup was held wherever else, Zenyatta would have had to go there and accomplish exactly what she had to do here. The thing is, it's almost a shame because if they had been separated a year, say Rachel ran in 2008 and Zenyatta ran in 2009, they both would have brought home Horse of the Year. But the way they both went out of their division and did what hadn't been done for a long time in the same season just happened. But you have to split hairs somewhere and the horse that showed up at the championship race at the end of a flawless season should get top honors. That's where I stand.

Today was quieter at Santa Anita. It was quiet for me because I rode so many good horses yesterday and the day before and now things were back to normal. The crowd size was quite a bit smaller than Breeders' Cup days, of course, but there were more people out there than I'd seen for most of the meet and we still had a decent crowd. It was closing day and there was still a little bit of Zenyatta buzz left in the air, and it was nice to feel that way.

ARCADIA, CALIF -- When Zenyatta's connections decided to run her in the Classic I kind of perked up a little bit about the Ladies' Classic, because my filly had been running really hard all year and Zenyatta had beat her a couple of times pretty handily. I knew she probably would have ended up second if that mare was in there. Mine is a champion-quality runner but she's no Zenyatta.

John Shirreffs did a tremendous job of getting the filly's confidence back up underneath her and having her ready for yesterday. And that's all it was. Really getting her confidence back. Her campaign this summer was very difficult and when you run some tough races like she did, it takes something out of you.

I wasn't sure how things would play out after we left the gate; I was actually a little disappointed at that point. She had been a little antsy and she halfway hopped out of there when she broke, and she got pinched a little bit. She's been wanting to just drop back and not help me at all, just completely off the bridle, which is not a good sign. But John told me today that he thought she was back to her old self, and when I got to the first turn and she kind of grabbed me and I said to myself, "You know, I think he's right."

That gave me a lot of confidence with her going up into the backside. I felt like they were moving along pretty good, I looked up, and Careless Jewel had snuck away by six or seven lengths and had really started to fly. A couple of the horses started to kind of give chase a little bit, and I just stayed on the fence.

She was always traveling really well for me. I actually thought they'd go ahead and start backing up about the three-eighths pole but they kept kicking on and I started to get a little worried. I said, "Man, maybe my clock's off!" Because I felt like we had been moving along pretty solid and stayed like that for quite a ways. So I started making a little run and got her in gear about the five-sixteenths pole, making my move on the outside, and I went around Kent Desormeaux on Mushka (me and him kind of moved together a little bit).

All of a sudden, just as we turned for home, they started coming back really solid and she was just finding her best stride. Before I knew it, she had reached the front in quick fashion; she went by the last one and just stayed on really solid. I'm glad she picked yesterday to show up!

Today should be interesting. I only have time to go into a couple of runners, but here are my thoughts. Of course I'm looking forward to riding Midshipman and Colonel John, my Dirt Mile and Classic mounts.

Codoy -- Juvenile Turf -- I was watching his maiden race and I actually picked him as the winner. He was so wide the whole trip. In his last time out, when he ran second in the Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland, the turf course was really soft and it was his first start on the grass. He ran a really good race and every race he's run a little better, a little better, so it looks like he's a nice little horse.

Delta Storm -- Turf Sprint -- It's been a while since I rode him; I actually won on him at Saratoga. I don't think I've ever ridden him down the hill, he's run once down it. The favorite really likes the downhill course, but if they go too fast it looks like my horse will be sitting in a pretty good spot. It looks like he's pretty adaptable. He can be a little further back if they go too fast, and he still comes with a nice little run and if they're going slow he can be up a little closer. The day he ran second to California Flag he was a length and a half off of him. We'll just have to see how things develop.

Lookin At Lucky -- Juvenile -- I've liked him since day one. You look at him and he doesn't look like a juvenile, he looks like a 3-year-old colt at the beginning of the year. Mentally he's got a great mind, he adapts to everything really well, he's been in a couple pressured situations like the Del Mar Futurity where he was down inside the whole way. He handled everything. I asked him for more than one run. He did everything really well. His last race he kind of waited on horses -- I thought I was going to win by like 10, but he kind of eased himself on me. Like I said, I've liked him from day one and he just continues to grow. He takes everything as it comes.

Courageous Cat -- Mile -- I'm riding him for the first time. I rode his mama [Tranquility Lake] a long time ago. He looks like he's a really nice horse. I was able to breeze him the other day. He likes to play a little bit but he's got a very good attitude and I'm excited to see him out there. He's been running with straight 3-year-olds in his past couple starts. A maiden race to the Breeders' Cup is a completely different story but he ran against older horses early on in his career. He's going to have to take a pretty big step forward, but he looks like the kind of horse that can.

ARCADIA, CALIF -- Happy Breeders' Cup day! We're geared up and ready to go with some great chances on the card, and if you're here in California I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Last year I won four Breeders' Cup races and it's kind of hard to tell which one was my favorite. It's pretty much a cross between Midnight Lute in the Sprint and Ventura in the Filly and Mare Sprint. Midnight Lute kind of had a couple races between there that didn't go so well for him, so for him to do what he did was a great day for him. Ventura has just been a great horse; to have her do it on Breeders' Cup day was just confirmation. She runs well all the time and I've been very high on her ever since we got her over here. To see her accomplish what she's accomplished so far has been great because I had that feeling about her from the start.

This year they kind of gave her a break and freshened her up; she only ran four times. She had a break from April to September and they brought her back to the Woodbine Mile off a five-month layoff and that was one of her better races for me. I believe she can repeat; it was her more than me doing anything for her, which is satisfying, you know, to have her in that kind of condition.

I'm riding Always a Princess in the Juvenile Fillies and I like the way she's handled things so far. The last time was her first graded stake going around two turns and she only had one race in her. I put her on the lead and she relaxed like a good horse is supposed to do. She got a little tired since it was her first time going two turns but even though she was tired she got passed for second and brought herself back ahead of that horse again, and that says a lot about a young horse -- she's got a lot of fight and wants to be a horse that's a good horse. Bob used her to set the pace for Lookin At Lucky in some morning works, about four or five times, and she kept right up with him. She's growing and moving forward and I'm excited about her. She's the real deal.

My Ladies' Classic mount is Life Is Sweet. She's a super fast horse; she got a grade I win here in the springtime and the rest of her races have still been good, just not super impressive. She's got a really nice kick to her, the key is just getting her to use it like she did in the springtime. The last time she ran in the Lady's Secret she only got beat about 2 ¼-lengths and from the quarter pole home Zenyatta didn't move away from her; she was actually just running in her shadow all the way to the wire.

Sure, the Clement Hirsch wasn't her best performance, but the time before that she was running with the boys in the Hollywood Gold Cup and she finished third, so you can't really knock her, she tries hard. We know she's not Zenyatta, but really in this race without Zenyatta in there, hopefully she can get back to her previous form.

That's about as much insight as I have time to give you; I'm off to the jockeys' room to get ready for the day. Good luck to everyone and enjoy the races!

ARCADIA, Calif. -- People ask all the time how jockeys plan for and handicap races, especially the big ones like the Breeders' Cup. In all actuality, I'll look at the race and find out who's in there and where they're gonna be; I know where the speed horses are and I know where the closers are, but it doesn't always work out the way it looks on paper.

For instance, when I look at the Form when it first comes out, I might see two or three or four speed horses that gotta be in front. But when we actually get onto the racetrack, one might break bad, one guy has instructions to not send, and all of the sudden you're the one that's out there on the lead. I mean, I always keep in the back of my mind what I saw on paper, but in the first couple of jumps of a race is when I see what's really going to happen.

That's the way I play most of my races. That's why I don't really go in depth until like the last second before I go out to the paddock. I'll glance and see what's in a race the day before and I'll go through it a little bit when I first go to the jocks' room -- and of course I know or I've studied the horse I'm riding -- but when I do my real studying is about three minutes before I go out to ride.

People think that sounds crazy last-minute, but I'll try to explain to you why I do it. Say we're going through the Sprint. We look and we see all the horses, we know where they're at, post positions and so on. Now if I study today and I study for the speed of the inside horse of Baffert's and I study for Fatal Bullet, just say for instance that on Saturday around the fifth race or something, they both scratch. I already have in depth in my mind the way the race is going to play out, and those two horses are a huge factor. Now with those scratches at the last second I'm pretty much lost as to how the race is going to develop. I go out there with this pre-set-up race that I've gotten into my mind and it involves those two horses and guess what, they're not there! So I don't do that.

I glance through the Form. I see who's in, that's about it. Say they scratch; I haven't really gotten so in-depth. So now when I do have the scratches and I go through it and see where the speed's going to come from, it's a whole different race. When I go out everything's fresh, I know where the speed's going to be, I know how the race theoretically should set up.

Now when I break, I look to see what's going on. That sounds obvious, but it's a contentious decision because you really can get caught up just with what your own horse is doing. Say one's on the inside and one's on the outside of me. When we break, I'll glance there and I'll glance there right away, boom, trying to see what's going on. If I see one guy holding back and the other guy holding back, I'll let my horse kind of be comfortable. If I see them both sending, I'll slowly take mine back and see what's going to happen.

Someone asked how I'll plan for the synthetic surface or if I adjust to ride over it compared to the ones at Hollywood or Del Mar. They all play a little differently, just like any dirt track. They're all very similar but they're all a little different too. You still need a good horse and a good trip; the main concern is having your horse in the right position and having it traveling well. When they're traveling well, you're able to place them to be in the right spot. When they're not traveling well, that makes it a lot more difficult. So it's pretty much the same scenario that you have with any surface -- you just hope your horse handles the track and has what it takes to come running at the end.

Hopefully I'll be riding a lot of those in the next few days.

ARCADIA, Cali. -- I took the day off yesterday to run some errands and pick out granite countertops for the new house we're building. It's kind of an Italian villa or Rancho Santa Fe style, we're not into that modern stuff. We're making progress, slow and steady, but we won't be ready to move into until March. Things are going to be pretty hectic the next few days so I figured I'd get that out of the way and spend some time away from the track; now I'm back to ride a few at Santa Anita this afternoon.

Pony girl 77 asked what I do to keep up my energy on a full race card. Riding 13 of 14 Breeders' Cup races sounds like a big load and I guess it is, but not in a bad way. When you have these big days it's pretty easy to stay energized. When you ride that many, when you stay busy, you're very active the whole day and you don't have time to think. You're just out there doing your job and you're caught up on the excitement level and the adrenaline is flowing. When you go home that night you go to sleep and crash but it's actually neat -- the two days of Breeders' Cup, I mean -- because it's like the adrenaline keeps going. You crash but you jump up the next day and think to yourself here we go again, gotta get it going again!

That's the energy part. As far as the strength part is concerned, leading up to the big days, I try not to do anything extra that's super physical. I mean obviously I'm still riding races which is my everyday job, but here's an example: I'll ride again on Sunday, then on Monday, which is a dark day, I'll probably go play golf.

Now I like golf. Golf is my getaway. But leading up to these days, I don't even play golf. Getting ready for the Breeders' Cup, when I'm not riding, I lock myself in the house or go do simple things where I'm not getting tired out. Because I'm the kind of guy who would play 36 holes of golf three days in a row and then come to ride eight horses and be like, "Why am I tired?" I didn't realize how much I was draining my body until I started to pay closer attention to it. Now I've gotten to the point where I don't even think. All of the sudden my body tells me I don't want to play golf, I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, and it's like my body has just shut down for the last three weeks where I haven't played golf, I haven't done anything I normally do.

Every year when the Breeders' Cup comes around like this, I pay close attention to my body. I pump my vitamins and immune-builders. Everybody's been sick in the jockeys' room but fortunately I haven't caught anything, knock on wood. I take all kinds of things: greens, powders, my B-12s all these real juices, just trying to make sure I'm as strong as I can be and that all my muscles and joints are ready to go when it's time to go. I really load up on those vitamins so hopefully when those days come around I feel in tip-top shape.

I'll be doing that over the next two days, kind of laying a little low and getting ready for the weekend, but I'll still post here. Tomorrow I'm going to fill you in on a little bit of my race-riding and handicapping style. Then Friday and Saturday I'll talk about each of my mounts on the card, and hopefully with a little luck I'll have some good results to recap on Sunday.

ARCADIA, CALIF -- It's hard to believe that almost five months have gone by since the last time I wrote about racing for you guys. The Triple Crown campaign was interesting and one of the good things that came out of it was the positive reception for the blog that ran on NTRA.com; it was great to interact with the fans and I didn't realize everyone would enjoy reading it as much as they did.

This week for Breeders' Cup I'll be doing pretty much the same thing I did for the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and Belmont - just sharing my thoughts and observations with you about the horses and the races in general. If you have any questions for me early in the week, I'll try to get a chance to answer them before things get too crazy. Just go ahead and post them here.

Usually on the big days I ride a bunch, and this year is no exception. I've got mounts in 13 of the 14 races; the only one I'm sitting out is the Breeders' Cup Marathon. I'm riding every race on the undercard both days too, which sounds like it might be hectic, but I enjoy it.

At an event like the Breeders' Cup where so much is on the line, the more the better. When you're riding, you're riding, anyway. When you're not waiting around in the middle of the day and the whole day you're never sitting out, that's the greatest feeling.

I think I did pretty much the same thing last year, was named to ride 13 of the 14 and then one of my mounts scratched or something and I ended up riding 12 and winning four. You always come into a card like this just being thankful for the opportunities and hoping everything pans out the way you think it could, so that's what I'm doing this time.

I always look forward to this event - it's meant a lot to me in my career over the past few years. As the year progresses you never know if you're going to end up with a good hand dealt to you or a medium hand or how full your card is going to be. You never know what the Breeders' Cup is going to look like and then all of the sudden you're winning races and going with horses you didn't even think of, like Ventura coming back off the layup to run in the Filly and Mare Sprint again.

Right around the beginning of September I start to get excited because it seems like there's these two weeks of concentrated preparation with big stakes here and at Belmont and Keeneland, and once the smoke clears from that it's like, Ok, let's see where we're at.

You're anticipating the event and it seems like it comes up slow, but then all of the sudden it's like a week away - today's Monday and since the Breeders' Cup is two days long now, that means we start on Friday which is even less than a week away and before you know it it'll be here.

Tomorrow I'm going to take a day off since there's a long week ahead, but I'll still have an update for you. Later in the week I'll pull together my thoughts on my mounts for Friday and Saturday and take a look back on a few of my favorite Breeders' Cup memories. Hope you'll join me!