Garrett Gomez

Lost in the ecstasy of Zenyatta's heroic effort and the agony of her narrow loss in the Breeders' Cup Classic last year was the pain in Garrett Gomez's shoulder. Gomez won with a great ride aboard a great horse named Blame. In 19 previous tries, no other horse had been able to withstand the closing rush of the greatest equine closer of our time, and when unbeaten Zenyatta came up about three inches short this time, the bigger story was her effort and her close call. When the reality of what had happened set in on the massive crowd at Churchill Downs, the mood turned immediately dark, just as day had turned quickly to night.

It will take less than 110 seconds to decide the winner of Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, but if you pay attention to the bettors, they are almost certain to place their trust in the combination of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Garrett Gomez. Flashback, trained by Baffert and to be ridden by Gomez, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race that is a final prep for the May 4 Kentucky Derby. Flashback's primary competition was expected to come from Hear The Ghost, who ran down Flashback to win the San Felipe Stakes by a half-length on March 9. But Hear The Ghost suffered an injury this week and will be scratched from Saturday's race.

It was arguably the biggest win of the new year for Garrett Gomez, one that stamped the jockey and his horse as serious contenders in Saturday's Kentucky Derby. So when Gomez climbed off Pioneerof The Nile in the winner's circle after the Santa Anita Derby on April 4, there was much to celebrate, right? "We went out to dinner. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary," says his wife, Pam. Nor, for the jockey, are victories. Which might excuse Gomez's blase attitude.

The rider was the bigger story than the horse Saturday at Santa Anita. Veteran Gary Stevens, a Hall of Fame jockey making the second comeback of his career, bolted from the gate to the lead aboard Slim Shadey in the featured $150,000 Grade II San Marcos Stakes. And stayed right there. It was only Slim Shadey's fourth victory in 24 starts and Stevens said that trainer Simon Callaghan had the 5-year-old perfectly prepared. It was the first stakes victory for Stevens, 49, since he announced his comeback Jan. 3 and got on his first horse Jan. 6. He had won two other races, but not a major race.

SANTA ANITA DERBY FAVORITES Lookin At Lucky, trained by Hall-of-Famer Bob Baffert, is already among the favorites to win the May 1 Kentucky Derby. So it is understandable that horse players attending Saturday's Santa Anita Derby, a main prep race for the Derby, will be looking elsewhere for betting value and rooting interest. Lookin At Lucky will start from the seventh post Saturday in the $750,000 Grade I race, and his main challenge is expected to come from Sidney's Candy, Caracortado and Alphie's Bet. Looking at Lucky has morning-line odds of 4-5, with Sidney's Candy at 3-2, Caracortado at 5-1 and Alphie's Bet at 8-1. Those four prized 3-year-olds have gone to the starting gate a total of 22 times and have won 16. Lookin At Lucky has won six times, Caracortado five, Sidney's Candy three and Alfie's Bet twice.

It has been his greatest year -- purses of more than $13 million, two wins and a second on the Breeders' Cup card, 26 stakes victories and a total of 229 wins as one of the country's hottest and most coveted jockeys, and all of that, said Garrett Gomez, is strictly a bonus, an interpretation hard to dispute.

The usual unpredictability and disintegration of favorites in the Triple Crown season has begun. Three leading candidates for fame and fortune May 7 at Churchill Downs went to three different posts in three different races Saturday, and only one emerged with reputation intact. On another postcard day at Santa Anita, in front of 8,476, trainer Steve Asmussen's Tapizar took on a field of six also-mentions and went to the gate in the $250,000 Robert Lewis Stakes with a startling endorsement from the betting public.

It will take less than 110 seconds to decide the winner of Saturday's $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, but if you pay attention to the bettors, they are almost certain to place their trust in the combination of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert and two-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Garrett Gomez. Flashback, trained by Baffert and to be ridden by Gomez, is the 6-5 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race that is a final prep for the May 4 Kentucky Derby. Flashback's primary competition was expected to come from Hear The Ghost, who ran down Flashback to win the San Felipe Stakes by a half-length on March 9. But Hear The Ghost suffered an injury this week and will be scratched from Saturday's race.

If they had a football team for jockeys, Garrett Gomez would play middle linebacker. Wednesday at Santa Anita, showing that tough guys can come in small packages, the 114-pound battler tackled a task in a style, and in a circumstance, that would have made Dick Butkus proud. In so doing, he made the '08 finale at the Great Race Place a dramatic one. Gomez entered the day's racing with a chance to break Jerry Bailey's all-time money-winning record for a season.

The Breeders' Cup comes to Santa Anita this week without a superstar like Zenyatta, and it's also missing the injured Triple Crown race winners from this year, I'll Have Another and Union Rags. So why watch? "Because the best horses in the world are running over a two-day period and because there'll be some good racin'," said veteran trainer Tom Proctor, who nears his 5,000th start by sending 9-2 shot Marketing Mix, with jockey Garrett Gomez, to the $2-million Filly and Mare Turf on Friday.

On Cal Cup Day at Santa Anita, jockey Tyler Baze earned his biggest win yet in his racing comeback, guiding Lucky Primo to a half-length victory over Got Even in the $175,000 Cal Cup Classic at 1 1/16 miles. Baze, 29, hadn't ridden since August of 2011 because of substance abuse problems. He had his first mount on Oct. 5, and he said he "couldn't be better" as he seeks to regain his place in the jockey colony. Trainer Joshua Litt said past success with Baze persuaded him to give him a shot.

Saturday at Santa Anita was a great day for Bob Baffert, for Baffert fans, and for fans of soap opera drama. Baffert, a long-proven masterful trainer of thoroughbreds, won three of the five Grade I races, each worth $250,000, that qualified the winner for an all-expenses-paid trip and entry into the Breeders' Cup. The other two? He didn't have an entry. For Baffert, that "all-expenses-paid" gimmick is more like a bonus. His owners still get the money, but the trip from Baffert's barn to the Santa Anita track, where the Breeders' Cup will be held this year and next, is a couple of hundred yards.

There were tears in the winner's circle Saturday at Betfair Hollywood Park after 10-1 longshot Camp Victory won the Grade I $250,000 Triple Bend Handicap by 31/4 lengths over The Factor. Camp Victory's trainer, Mike Mitchell, underwent surgery Friday for a brain tumor. "He called me this morning," said one of Camp Victory's owners, Lynne Miller. "I didn't know if I was ever going to talk to him again. It was so good for Mike. He's cracking jokes. " Mitchell was watching the race from a computer in the intensive care unit of USC Medical Center.

Jockey Garrett Gomez turned 40 on New Year's Day, which only means he's getting wiser and better based on the way he has been riding at Santa Anita. He has become the jockey to bet on in stakes races, winning his fourth in a row and sixth in nine days at Santa Anita on Saturday. Gomez guided 10-1 longshot Out Of Bounds to a half-length victory over 1-2 favorite Secret Circle in the Grade III $100,000 Sham Stakes, the first major West Coast prep race for 3-year-olds seeking a spot in the Kentucky Derby.

Trainer John Shirreffs said he was eating at a Pasadena restaurant Christmas day when he overheard a bartender ask another worker, "Are you going to the races tomorrow?" That might have been a clue to the interest in opening day at Santa Anita, where on Monday the on-track attendance was 44,579, the largest opening-day crowd since 1994. It resulted in traffic jams, filled parking lots and long lines for bathrooms, beer and betting. "I think it's so much fun," Shirreffs said.

Lady At Peace won for new owners Jon and Sarah Kelly and new trainer Ed Gregson on Monday in the $150,000 San Gorgonio Handicap at Santa Anita. In a field reduced to five after the scratch of Keeper Hill, Lady At Peace, the 5-1 third choice, crawled through 49 1/5 and 1:12 3/5 fractions under jockey Garrett Gomez and had more than enough left in the final furlongs to beat 1-2 favorite Spanish Fern by 1 1/2 lengths.

Back on her preferred surface, 6-5 favorite Fleet Lady overcame some trouble at the start and passed 9-1 shot Fascinate late to win by half a length in the $100,000 B. Thoughtful Stakes on Saturday at Hollywood Park. Ridden by Garrett Gomez, who came through the narrowest of openings along the rail entering the stretch, Fleet Lady--a 4-year-old Avenue Of Flags filly--was timed in 1:21 3/5 for seven furlongs.

Breeders' Cup favorites Horse; Jockey; Trainer; Morning-line odds; FRIDAY RACES Juvenile Sprint Secret Circle; Rafael Bejarano; Bob Baffert; 6/5; Juvenile Fillies Turf Elusive Kate; William Buick; John H.M. Gosden; 2/1; Filly and Mare Sprint Turbulent Descent; David Flores; Mike Puype; 6/5; Juvenile Fillies My Miss Aurelia; Corey Nakatani; Steven M. Asmussen; 5/2; ...

Lost in the ecstasy of Zenyatta's heroic effort and the agony of her narrow loss in the Breeders' Cup Classic last year was the pain in Garrett Gomez's shoulder. Gomez won with a great ride aboard a great horse named Blame. In 19 previous tries, no other horse had been able to withstand the closing rush of the greatest equine closer of our time, and when unbeaten Zenyatta came up about three inches short this time, the bigger story was her effort and her close call. When the reality of what had happened set in on the massive crowd at Churchill Downs, the mood turned immediately dark, just as day had turned quickly to night.