Page 9 - The Game January 2006

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, January 2006 9
An argument broke out in the Hastings press box one day. Now that’s not unusual. Anytime you get a bunch of Jurassic old racing writers and sports egos together there’s bound to be an animated debate over who was the best horse ever, or the best hitter in baseball, best quarterback in the CFL, or best Jai Alai player in eastern Saskatchewan.
This particular discussion was about the greatest jockey of all time. The names of Pincay, Cordero and Shoemaker were batted around because a member of the club from California. Longden’s name came up from the Western Canada contingent and a few historic references were made to Baeza, Wolfe and even Hartack.
In my humble opinion these are names that deserve Hall of Frame recognition but there are two riders that should never be left out of a ‘greatest ever’ debate - Chris Rogers and Avelino Gomez.
Chris Rogers was a classic race rider. I had the privilege of knowing him at Delaware racetrack in 1967. At that time he was making a comeback against the demons that haunted him during his career. He rode all the horses for our Canadian outfit and I became great friends with his agent. Hence, whether or not we had a horse running I would be at the rail to watch Chris ride. He had wonderfully smooth old- time style that was totally in-sync with the movement of the horse, and that rare ability the great Preston Birch called ’the talent to move a horse up’.
Avelino Gomez on the other hand was a totally different style of rider. He was very busy on a horse. As one trainer described it ‘he’d boot and scoot and bite their ears’.
It was in Fort Erie in the summer of 1966 that I saw what was perhaps the greatest ride I’ve ever seen. Not a stake or handicap race on a great horse, but a bottom claiming race on a horse with cheap speed.
I worked back then as a groom for the late Frank Merrill. Frank had a horse named Steel Leader. We had run him at Woodbine with Gomez in the tack and it didn’t take long to figure out that that didn’t work. The horse ran last.
The reason, Frank figured, was that the horse didn’t like Gomez’s busy style of riding. This horse you see was afraid of anything and everything. He was afraid of the gate, he was afraid of other horses, he was afraid of his shadow, but mostly he was afraid of Gomey.
When the stable moved to Fort Erie at the beginning of July, Steel Leader was entered in the first race of the meet with Paul Maxwell aboard. Paul was known for ‘sitting chilly’—just the opposite of
Avelino. Steel Leader broke in the pack, realized he was surrounded by other horses (which he definitely didn’t like), bolted to the front and kept on going. He won the race by 7 3/4 lengths.
A month and a half later he was entered in a $3000 claiming race again with Paul Maxwell up. Gomez was on a very speedy horse and although he hadn’t ridden Steel Leader in over two months he remembered something about him. He was afraid of the tote board and would ‘bare out’ as he approached it.
The race unfolded with our horse bolting to the front. Gomez, rather than contest the lead, dropped in behind and sat chilly. He waited. Then in the stretch, with a move that brought a gasp from the grooms on the rail and the punters in the stands, he went to ‘bootin’’ & scootin’ driving right up on Steel Leader as they approached the tote board. It was close. In fact, any closer and he would have clipped heels or worst, but sure enough our horse skittered away from that tote like a virgin from a cowboy. A small hole opened and Gomez had saved enough gas to get through and won by 3/4 of a length.
That race showed the master at work. Not only did he remember a detail about a horse he had ridden months and many mounts before but had the talent to save enough horse and the guts to make the call. I can’t think of a rider today who could or would have done it.
Argument settled gentlemen.
Grooms of the year
Class of 2005 Congratulations to the 2005
All Star Groom Team. Winners of the Groom of the month awards were Eldy Birnie, Bev Miles, Jesse Rawson, Ariana Save, Luke McGhie, Lisa Russel, and Brian Brock
A Look at Racing in British Columbia
By Jim Reynolds
Did You Know....
Ireland’s Finance Minister Brian Cowen revealed in his budget speech in December that all income from stallions would lose their tax-free status which had been in effect for 36 years in the country.
The change will take place on July 31, 2008.
Although heavily disputed among the bloodstock industry, the change appeared to be inevitable after the European Commission declared the tax-free status in Ireland to be an anti-competitive state aid.
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