Loss of father weighs heavy on Justify's exercise rider Humberto Gomez

BALTIMORE – Humberto Gomez, the exercise rider of Kentucky Derby winner Justify, will be watching Saturday’s Preakness with a heavy heart after his father, Ulpiano Portela Gomez, died Tuesday in Mexico. He was 86.

“It was tough because he’s the one who brought me to the horse industry, but at least he got to watch the Kentucky Derby,” Gomez said Wednesday after arriving in Baltimore from Kentucky with Justify. “I guess he was proud of me.”

Gomez was unable to return to Mexico for his father’s funeral. He said the service was held on Wednesday, his father was cremated, and his ashes will be taken to Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Roman Catholic Church north of Mexico City.

Ulpiano Portela Gomez took his son to the races in Mexico, where Humberto Gomez fell in love with the speed of the Thoroughbred. Gomez said his father was supportive of his desire to become a jockey.

“He was a big fan of racing,” Gomez said. “We’re from the city, so I went to the races with him. It got my attention seeing the speed of the horses. That’s how I became a jockey. He took me to the jockey school and everything.”

Gomez said he rode more than 700 winners between riding in Mexico and a brief stint in Canada, where stats show he won 12 races between Hastings Park and Kamloops in 1999.

“I think of him every time we go to a big race because he believed in me,” Gomez said. “When a lot of other people were telling me I wasn’t going to make it as a jockey, that I was too tall, I made it and he always believed in me.”

Over the last 19 years as an exercise rider, Gomez has worked for Bobby Frankel, Doug O’Neill, and John Shirreffs, in addition to Baffert. He has been aboard horses like Aptitude, Medaglia d’Oro, and I’ll Have Another.