Recently passed dad was with Florent Geroux aboard Gun Runner

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Just minutes after winning the richest race in the world, the $16 million Pegasus World Cup, aboard Gun Runner, the best horse in the world, jockey Florent Geroux put it all into perspective.

“I’d give up all the wins just to have him back with me,” Geroux said.

Geroux was referring to his father, Dominique, who passed away one month ago at 67 from injuries suffered in a fall at his home in Amiens, France, on Christmas Eve.

Geroux put up another absolutely flawless ride aboard Gun Runner in the Pegasus World Cup, just as he’d done 12 weeks earlier when the pair teamed up to clinch Horse of the Year honors with a similarly impressive victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Geroux and Gun Runner have now combined to win seven of their last eight starts together. Their only setback over the past 14 months was a second-place finish behind Arrogate in the 2017 Dubai World Cup.

Dominique Geroux was at Del Mar when Geroux and Gun Runner won the Classic. And he was scheduled to be at Gulfstream Park on Saturday when his son rode Gun Runner for the final time in the Pegasus World Cup.

“He was my number one fan, the best dad, an incredible grandfather and he loved this horse (Gun Runner),” Geroux said shortly after his father passed away. “I miss him big time. I was thinking about him a lot throughout the day and when I was in the post parade. I was praying he was watching. And the way things turned out, I guess he was there with me.”

The Pegasus World Cup cumulated a hectic and exciting week for Geroux, who was unable to attend Thursday evening’s Eclipse Award dinner when Gun Runner was officially crowned Horse of the Year. Instead, Geroux was in Chicago, where the following morning he passed the oral test required to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Geroux first came to the U.S. in 2008 and now resides with his wife Kasey and two daughters in Louisville, Ky.

Despite breaking from post position 10, with a short run to the first turn, Geroux said his trip aboard Gun Runner was “exactly the one I’d been dreaming and hoping for” in the days leading up to the Pegasus World Cup.

“Basically, the horse broke super fast, like he’s capable of, and I was glad Collected gave us a target,” Geroux said. “I was confident right from the beginning. When I was two wide going into the first turn, I thought to myself as long as someone doesn’t come up outside me and go crazy, I knew I got this thing. I was hoping Collected would pull me a little farther, but at the three-eighths pole he was drunk, so I just took it from there. This was what we get up and come out here for every morning. The feeling of winning this race, it’s hard to describe.”

Trainer Steve Asmussen also put things into perspective when talking about his jockey at the press conference after the race.

“Everybody knows that Florent is a great rider,” Asmussen said. “But the reason his father, all of us, are so proud of him, is because he’s even a better person.”

Hopefully, Dominique Geroux was still watching then, too.