Page 29 - New Mexico Horse Breeder, Fall

JGuan Carlos onzalez
by Pete Herrera
EMBRACING HIS DESTINY
A decision based on a litany of lessons learned.
In the end Juan Carlos Gonzalez embraced his destiny.
A decision based on a litany of lessons learned.
Ultimately, Juan Carlos realized that an office building on the west side of El Paso was no match for the shed rows of a racetrack.
He discovered that when you’re making life-changing decisions, your DNA sometimes carries more weight than your GPA.
And he found out that life always happens and what your mind thinks you need sometimes loses out to what your heart wants.
Which is why these days the 31 year old with the quick smile, articulate presence and disarming personality, is training fast horses instead of designing high-rise buildings.
And thanks in large part to the fastest horse in the Gonzalez’ barn—a 2-year-old filly named Suze Returns—Juan Carlos’ rookie season as a full-time trainer got off to a solid start.
Suze Returns, owned by El Paso businessman Joe Rios, won four of her first six races and earned just over $352,000 this past spring and summer.
The sorrel filly broke her maiden in March with a 2 1/4-length win at Sunland Park in the trials for the West Texas Futurity-G2. The filly returned to win the $269,528 futurity finals, then set the top qualifying times in the trials of the Ruidoso and Rainbow futurities at Ruidoso Downs.
She ran second in the $1,000,000 Ruidoso Futurity-G1 finals, then failed to light the board in the finals of the $1,000,000 Rainbow Futurity-G1, where she finished eighth. In her most recent start, she ran fourth in the trials
of the All American Futurity-G1 and failed to qualify for the $3,000,000 Labor Day race that is the richest in Quarter Horse racing.
There was a time when Juan Carlos could not envision what has happened. Rewind his life
to his senior year at El Paso’s Coronado High School, back to a time when he was sure he had his future by the horns.
He was going to go to college and pursue a degree in civil engineering because he loved the idea of designing buildings. That was the focus of his college years, first at the University of Texas-El Paso and then at the University of Texas in Austin.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering in Austin, then returned to UTEP for his master’s. For his thesis, Juan Carlos designed and helped build a totally self-sustained solar-powered modular house for the university.
“Basically, you can put it (house) in the middle of anywhere and it will work. You don’t have to be plugged into the grid. You don’t have to be connected to city water,” he said of the
project that included the use of highly efficient insulation and lightweight construction.
Always an excellent student, Juan Carlos received rave reviews from his mentors and professors.
Dr. Carlos Ferregut, director of global engineering studies at UTEP and Juan Carlos’ mentor during his time at UTEP, used terms such as “creative, responsible, articulate and motivated” to describe him.
In a letter recommending Juan Carlos for a scholarship during his master’s program, Ferregut said Gonzalez was one of the top students he’d ever had and predicted Gonzalez would make an excellent engineer.
To that end, after graduation Juan Carlos went to work for a structural engineering firm in El Paso.
For his college thesis, Juan Carlos designed and helped build a totally self- sustained solar-powered modular house for the university. The house included the use of highly efficient insulation and lightweight construction.
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