Maryland horsemen steadily named Kevin Gomez on their horses throughout 2016, and his accomplishments have made him a finalist for the Eclipse Award as leading apprentice rider.
Gomez is the son of jockey Oscar Gomez, who rode in Guatemala before moving to the United States. Oscar Gomez began riding at the New York Racing Association tracks in 2000, and since 2009 has been a mainstay at Finger Lakes.
Kevin Gomez, 22, emigrated from Guatemala in 2007 to be near his father.
When Lane Luzzi told his father, a winner of more than 3,400 races, that he wanted to be a jockey, Mike Luzzi helped by placing him with some excellent instructors. Before heading to classes at Floral Park Memorial High School, Lane would gallop horses at Belmont Park for the likes of Kiaran McLaughlin, Mike Maker, and Joe Sharp.
When B. Wayne Hughes purchased Lord Nelson following his third-place finish in the 2015 Malibu Stakes, the plan was to retire him to stud at Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky. But after Hughes and trainer Bob Baffert discussed what to do with the son of Pulpit, it was decided to keep him in training for his 4-year-old season.
At age 6, A. P. Indian was finally able to realize the potential he had hinted at during his previous four seasons of competition. He went 6 for 7 on the year, swept the two Grade 1 sprint stakes at Saratoga, and won the top races in his division at both the Belmont Park spring meet and the Keeneland fall stand.
Coming into the 2016 season, A. P. Indian had made only a single graded-stakes start. By fall, he had developed into the best sprinter in the East. And now, with the year complete, he is one of three finalists for the Eclipse Award for leading male sprinter.
Horses trained by Chad Brown don’t seem to bounce, nor do the trainer’s statistics. In 2016, he continued his string of ascending yearly earnings since beginning his career in 2007, leading all trainers with more than $23.1 million in North American purse money. Brown was nearly $2 million ahead of Todd Pletcher, who had held the money-won crown from 2010-2015.
Trainer Bob Baffert refers to jockey Mike Smith as “Big Money Mike,” a reference to his achievements in lucrative races such as the Breeders’ Cup races. Of course, Baffert, a member of racing’s Hall of Fame, is himself worthy of the “Big Money” moniker.
In 2015, he trained the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years in American Pharoah, who capped his history-making year by winning the $5 million Breeder’s Cup Classic. And in 2016, he again took home the biggest prize in the Breeder’s Cup when Arrogate won the Classic under Smith, upsetting California Chrome.
Haveyougoneaway began her 2016 campaign by winning a pair of ungraded sprint stakes at Oaklawn Park. They were solid efforts, but little did anyone suspect that the 5-year-old mare would go on to become a divisional finalist for an Eclipse Award.
By late summer, however, under new silks and in a new barn, Haveyougoneaway was the unofficial leader of the female sprint division by virtue of winning the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes on the Aug. 27 Travers undercard at Saratoga.
Although a Grade 1 victory may have eluded Paulassilverlining in 2016, she sure racked up a lot of style points with the combination of class, speed, and consistency she displayed throughout a terrific campaign.
Owned by her breeder, New York businessman Vincent Scuderi, and trained by Michelle Nevin, Paulassilverlining won five of nine starts, accounting for four stakes, three of them graded. Even in defeat, the 4-year-old filly turned in highly creditable efforts when finishing fifth in the Grade 1 Ballerina and third in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.
As the 2016 Breeders’ Cup approached, Finest City was barely on the radar screen for a divisional Eclipse Award. But one sensational run changed all that.
By winning the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on Nov. 5 at her home track of Santa Anita, Finest City became an Eclipse finalist in the female sprint division.
