Mario Gutierrez moves to Kentucky
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Jockey Mario Gutierrez, twice a Kentucky Derby winner, is relocating from California to Kentucky this spring in advance of the upcoming April meeting at Keeneland.
Gutierrez, who has not ridden since Feb. 23 at Oaklawn Park, is booked on two mounts at Santa Anita on Friday, but he recently moved his wife and 8-year-old boy into a home in Louisville, Ky. The Gutierrez family lost their California home during the devastating wildfires that struck the Los Angeles area in January.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Gutierrez said he is eager to resume riding and has been exercising horses this week in Louisville as the racing community there resumes activity in advance of the Churchill Downs spring meeting.
“Since my home burned down, I’ve been focusing on relocating my family and getting them back to normalcy,” he said. “Kentucky makes sense for me. The plan is to start at Keeneland.”
The Keeneland meeting begins on April 4, while the Churchill Downs spring meeting begins on April 26. Gutierrez said he has focused on family matters in recent weeks.
“I haven’t been racing lately,” he said. “I kept things private to myself.”
Through Wednesday, Gutierrez has four wins this year, all at Santa Anita in January and February, including Look Forward in the Grade 2 Santa Ynez Stakes for 3-year-old fillies in January. The stakes win came days before the fire.
“It’s been pretty hard,” Gutierrez said of the fire. “I’m trying to move on and look forward for the future. I’ve been pretty quiet about my situation. I’m eager to start racing.”
Gutierrez won the Kentucky Derby with I’ll Have Another in 2012 and Nyquist in 2016. Those colts were owned by Paul and Zillah Reddam and trained by Doug O’Neill. Gutierrez has ridden a majority of the runners owned by the Reddams for more than a decade.
At Santa Anita on Friday, Gutierrez has two mounts on starters owned by the Reddams – Putt for Dough for trainer Antonio Garcia in a $16,000 claiming race at a mile and the O’Neill-trained Bro Bro in an allowance race for California-breds at five furlongs on turf.
Gutierrez said the trip to California will include business matters related to his lost property. The loss of the home, he said, was a reminder of his youth in Mexico, and the need for perseverance.
“My family struggled just to provide,” he said. “I’m no stranger to that. I think my background will help me.”
Gutierrez, 38, has won 1,393 races in Canada and the United States, including the 2012 Preakness Stakes on I’ll Have Another and two Breeders’ Cup races in 2015 and 2016.
Gutierrez had 28 wins in 2024, his lowest total since he began riding at Hastings Park in Vancouver in 2006. Gutierrez relocated to Southern California in the fall of 2011 after riding occasionally in Northern California and Oregon beginning in 2007.
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