Hovdey: Wilson perfecto choice for Gomez Award

Every racing calendar has June 9 circled in bright red crayon, but not all for the same reason.

Yes, there will be a Belmont Stakes presented at Belmont Park, where Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify will attempt to become the 13th winner of the Triple Crown. The house will be packed.

Up in Toronto, on the same afternoon, the Woodbine Oaks will highlight a Woodbine program that also will include the presentation of the 2018 Avelino Gomez Memorial Award to Emma-Jayne Wilson, who is still in a state of giddy disbelief over this week’s announcement of the honor.

“Every time someone calls me about it, I still get a little choked up,” Wilson said Friday during one of those calls. “His legacy is definitely ingrained into Woodbine’s history. His bravado in the face of challenges, his strength of character, and to ride the way he rode – to be honored this way is a bit surreal.”

The Gomez Award will fit nicely in Wilson’s collection, which includes not only a trophy for winning the 2007 Queen’s Plate aboard Mike Fox, but also an Eclipse Award and a pair of Sovereign Awards for her breakout career as an apprentice.

Any reference to the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award provides an excuse to appreciate the rider for whom it was named and, sadly, why.

Gomez, born in Havana, began his riding career in Mexico City, then emigrated to smaller U.S. tracks before finding a home at Woodbine in the mid-1950s. It did not take the flamboyant Gomez long to become the star of the show, winning the Queen’s Plate four times, six local championships, and the respect of owners and trainers on both sides of the border.

Gomez flaunted his nickname, “El Perfecto,” and delivered on the boast. It was Gomez who added the flying dismount to his victories, copied later by Angel Cordero and Frankie Dettori. In 1966, Gomez became the first Canadian jockey to win more than 300 races when his 318 total led all North American riders.

After a brief retirement in the early 1970s, Gomez returned to the saddle. His 107 wins in 1973 propelled him to seventh on the all-time list of jockeys, behind only Bill Shoemaker, John Longden, Eddie Arcaro, Steve Brooks, Bill Hartack, and Walter Blum.

On June 21, 1980, Gomez was attempting to win his fifth Canadian Oaks at Woodbine when he went down on the backstretch in a three-filly chain reaction and suffered fatal injuries. He was 52.

Gomez and his career total of 4,081 wins were enshrined in the racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs in 1982. The Gomez Award, inaugurated in 1984, was modeled after Santa Anita’s George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, right down to the life-size statue of Gomez that still stands at Woodbine today. The first recipient was Ron Turcotte, Secretariat’s rider, who was rendered paraplegic by a fall at Belmont Park in 1978. Sandy Hawley, Don MacBeth, Robin Platts, Stewart Elliott, and Gary Boulanger, the 2017 honoree, are among the other Gomez winners with strong Canadian ties.

Fittingly, the Gomez Award is presented on the day of the Oaks, his final ride. Much to her frustration, Wilson will be in street clothes for the ceremony, since she is still recovering from a fractured left arm suffered while working a horse on the morning of April 20, the day before the opening of the current Woodbine meet.

“We broke off going half a mile,” Wilson recalled. “Then five or six jumps into the work she shied a little bit. It’s cold up here that time of year, so I was wearing heavier boots for the weather. When she shied my foot slipped out of the iron and I couldn’t get it back in.”

Wilson’s left elbow hit the ground first, and the bone of her upper arm took the worst of the blow, fracturing just below the shoulder joint.

“I think the synthetic surfaces we have up here are the least kind when you hit,” she added. “They can really grab a hold of you, there’s no give. But I was very lucky in a sense that there was no damage to the head of the humerus. It was surgically repaired with a five-inch plate and six or eight screws. So I have quite the scar, and it’s healing quite nicely.”

Wilson, 36, admits that the dreadful timing of the injury messed with her head.

“I’ve been hurt before in serious crashes,” she said. “This wasn’t the worst, though it was from a mental standpoint. I was primed for the season. Everything seemed to be flowing into place. I was breezing a lot of horses, and they were doing great. When I hit the ground I knew I was injured, and I was devastated. It took me a few days longer to regain my composure, knowing that this is the job, and now it would be six to eight weeks of healing.”

Time off to heal means more time at home, which in Wilson’s case is not a bad thing. Wilson and her spouse, Laura Trotter, are the parents of 16-month-old identical twin girls, Avery and Grace, who will be front and center for the Gomez presentation.

“That has been a silver lining,” Wilson said. “And thank goodness I’m ambidextrous, since I’ve only had one arm to scoop them up with.”