Talented but troubled jockey Garrett Gomez, 44, a two-time Eclipse Award winner and father of four who rode his last race at Keeneland in October 2013, has died. Daughter Shelby Gomez confirmed her father's passing with Bloodhorse.com's Jeremy Balan.
Circumstances about his passing were unclear. According to several sources, Gomez had left his Duarte, Calif., home and was estranged from wife Pam, moving back to Tucson, Ariz., where he was born Jan. 1, 1972.
Ron Anderson, agent to Gomez when he won Eclipse Awards as outstanding jockey in 2008 and 2009 and was the nation's leading money-winner for four consecutive years, said he was told Gomez was found dead on Native American casino property in the Tucson area. A friend of Gomez from Southern California who asked that his name not be used, said he recently reached out to Gomez, who told him “I've got to get away from here.” The friend volunteered to send funds for a train ticket from Tucson back to Los Angeles but said he never heard from Gomez again.
Calls about Gomez to the Tohono O'Odham police department – which oversees the tribal land – were referred to Matthew Smith of the Strategic Issues Management Group, which contracts with the tribe. He could not be reached to confirm the circumstances of Gomez's death.
Gomez, the son of jockey Louie Gomez, began his career at Santa Fe Downs in New Mexico, winning his first race Aug. 18, 1988, aboard Furlong Circle.
He moved his tack to the Midwest but soon began a battle with alcohol and substance abuse that plagued him for much of his adult life. Gomez had numerous suspensions and served 40 days in jail for possession of a controlled substance and missed most of 2003-04 after relocating in the late 1990s to Southern California, where he become one of the circuit's top riders. He won back-to-back runnings of the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in 2000-01.
His best years in the saddle were yet to come, however, and his recovery from addiction became an inspirational and widely told story as he began to pile up even more big race triumphs. Gomez broke Jerry Bailey's record for most stakes victories in one season in 2007 when he rode the winners of 76 added-money races. In 2008 he set a personal mark when his mounts earned $23,344,351, falling just $10,000 short of Bailey's single-season record for a North American jockey.
Gomez won 13 Breeders' Cup races and was aboard Blame for his victory over Zenyatta in the 2010 Classic at Churchill Downs. From 21,639 career mounts, he won 3,769 races and his mounts earned $205,224,899. Among those victories were 83 in Grade 1 races aboard the likes of Beholder, Blind Luck, Marketing Mix, Lookin At Lucky, Blame, Gio Ponti, Pioneerof the Nile, Rags to Riches, Any Given Saturday and English Channel. He was voted the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award by his peers in 2011.
But in 2013, Gomez relapsed, riding sporadically until his final career mount in October.
In 2005, after he'd been clean for over a year from alcohol and drugs, Pam Gomez told Ross Newhan of the Los Angeles Times how bad things became when drugs and alcohol had taken over his life.
“So many times he would call in desperation and say, ‘You've got to get me out of this place I'm at,'” she said. “The problem was, I couldn't get him out of that place because he had to get himself out. I could only provide the car. I could only give him a ride.”
Amderson, agent for Gomez from 2006-11, said he and the jockey lived under the same roof for much of that time. “I never once thought there was anything going on – drugs or alcohol – but he always had a little dark side to him,” said Anderson. “ I could never put my finger on it. He cared about everybody, especially the backside people. He was so appreciative to the grooms and the gallop people.”
In 2012, with co-author Dr. Rudolph Alvarado, Gomez wrote his autobiography: “The Garrett Gomez Story: A Jockey's Journey Through Addiction & Salvation.” The jockey's proceeds all went to the Santa Anita Park-based Winners Foundation, which assists racetrack personnel with drug and alcohol issues.
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