Shigeki Kikkawa
Mario Gutierrez, 25, won the Santa Anita Derby aboard I’ll Have Another for his first victory in a Grade 1 stakes. He will ride the colt in the Kentucky Derby.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Mario Gutierrez was 17 in 2004 and had just finished high school in Veracruz, Mexico, when he announced his grand career plans to his parents. He wanted to move to Mexico City, and become a jockey.
“I said, ‘Let me try it in Mexico City for a year,’ ” he remembers.
A year, his parents said. Give it a year. If you are not successful, come home and head to college, they said.
After a year, Gutierrez was ready to leave Mexico City, but he went north, all the way to Hastings Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he became a leading rider.