IT'S `GO, GO' TIME FOR WONDERBOY.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer ELMONT, N.Y. - For Garrett Gomez, riding fast to make up for lost time, only one thing could be better than what the jockey has done this year. He could win the Kentucky Derby Kentucky Derby One of the classic U.S. Thoroughbred horse races. It was established in 1875 and run annually on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs track in Louisville, Ky. With the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, it makes up U.S. racing's coveted Triple Crown. next year. Gomez rode to the first two Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I thoroughbred horse races operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982 by a consortium of North American racing organizations, led by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. victories of his career Saturday at Belmont Park Noun 1. Belmont Park - a racetrack for thoroughbred racing in Elmont on Long Island; site of the Belmont Stakes Belmont Elmont - a town on Long Island in New York; site of Belmont Park with Stevie Wonderboy Stevie Wonderboy (foaled 2003 in Kentucky) is a retired Thoroughbred race horse. Competing in 2005, his performances that year, capped off by a win in the fall's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, earned him the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 2-Year-Old Male Horse. in the Juvenile and Artie Schiller in the Mile, after winning the Pacific Classic in August, after winning the Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may be several places:
Next stop, the Derby? Stevie Wonderboy's determined rally in the Breeders' Cup's big 2-year-olds race lets ``Go Go'' dream. ``That's quite a ways down the road,'' Gomez said of the May 6 Derby, more than six months away as he spoke Sunday. ``I think he's got the capability of doing it. As far as the distance goes, the farther the better.'' Stevie Wonderboy, the colt owner Merv Griffin Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. (July 6 1925 – August 12 2007) was an American talk show host, game show host, entertainer, pianist, television personality and raconteur. named for Stevie Wonder, is a son of Stephen Got Even (beaten favorite in the 1999 Derby) and maternal grandson of Summer Squall Summer Squall (foaled 1987 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by Storm Bird, who in turn was a son of 1964 U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt Northern Dancer, "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history. (winner in the 1990 Preakness). The Kentucky-bred has won three races in a row for trainer Doug O'Neill, including the Del Mar Futurity The Del Mar Futurity is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. Beginning in the racing season of 2007, this race has been upgraded by the American Graded Stakes Committee from a Grade II event to a Grade I. last time out Sept. 7, after running second and third to the late What a Song. ``He's a big horse, but he's got room to grow,'' Gomez said of racing's new young star. ``He's never done anything to make us question him.'' Gomez, 33, whose dad was a jockey, is hitting the high notes expected when he came out of New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). and won races as rich as the 2000 and 2001 Pacific Classics with Skimming. From December 2002 to September 2004, he was as low as he could go, problems with cocaine and alcohol keeping him out of competition and landing him in jail for 40 days on drug-possession charges. A diversion program and rehabilitation at the Impact facility in Pasadena put him right. Months of persuasion got him a new California jockey's license. Partly because of what he's been through, Gomez doesn't look too far ahead, wife Pam said Sunday. The Derby for Stevie Wonderboy? ``(The thought) crosses my lips a lot,'' Pam Gomez said. ``He's always shushing me.'' Now it can be told. Jim Pegram, Gomez's agent, recalls what the jockey said the first time he climbed off Stevie Wonderboy in June. ``He said, 'Jim, this is our Derby horse,' '' Pegram said Sunday. Gomez and Stevie Wonderboy were ahead of only three of their 13 opponents in the $1.5 million Juvenile after one-half mile, having checked quickly to avoid backstretch back·stretch n. The part of an oval racecourse farthest from the spectators and opposite the homestretch. traffic. They wound up sweeping into the stretch and running down runner-up Henny Hughes and favorite First Samurai in the last furlong, all but clinching the 2-year-old championship and earning a spot on the Derby short list. --Anticipation: Don't expect Stevie Wonderboy to race again until January or February at Santa Anita, O'Neill said Sunday. After the horse's Breeders' Cup success - off a 52-day layoff - the trainer's initial thought is that as few as two Kentucky Derby preps might be enough. ``I think it showed that he's a horse that maintains his fitness well (without racing),'' O'Neill said. ``If we want him at his peak next May, we have to be careful not to do too much between now and then.'' --Help from the track? Four of the five winners of Breeders' Cup races on Belmont's main track rallied on the outside entering the stretch - Stevie Wonderboy, Saint Liam (fourth early) in the Classic, Pleasant Home (12th) in the Distaff, and Silver Train (fifth) in the Sprint. The only early front-runner to finish in the top three in a race on the dirt track was Folklore in the Juvenile Fillies. Jerry Bailey, who rode Saint Liam, said he thought the inside was not ``the best part of the racetrack.'' If there was a rally-wide bias in the track, then Juvenile runner-up Henny Hughes' on-the-pace run to lose by 1 1/4 lengths was an unrewarded great effort. --MVP: Gomez was named winner of the Bill Shoemaker Award, which goes to the outstanding jockey of Breeders' Cup day, in a press box vote. ``I was just happy to participate,'' said Gomez, who had the two wins as well as Taste of Paradise's photo-finish loss in the Sprint. --Growing? Saturday's announced attendance of 54,289 - on a raw afternoon at largely unheated Belmont - was the largest for the four Breeders' Cups held in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . More impressive, perhaps, the on-site crowd contributed $15.75 million (a track record surpassing the day of Smarty An earlier device marketed by Fischer International Systems Corporation, Naples, FL (www.fisc.com) that used a standard 3.5" floppy drive to read smart cards. The smart card was inserted into Smarty, which resembled a floppy disk. Jones' 2004 Triple Crown bid) to the $122 million in total wagering on the Breeders' Cup (an event record). Next year's Breeders' Cup will be held at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and 2007's will mark the Cup's first trip to Monmouth Park in New Jersey. Kevin Modesti, (818) 713-3616 heymodesti(at)aol.com |
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