Garrett Gomez, Two-Time Eclipse Award Winner Dead

Remembrances tinged with sadness poured in from all corners of the racing world on Thursday in the wake of news that retired jockey Garrett Gomez has died at age 44 in Tucson, Arizona.

The two-time Eclipse Award-winning champion jockey is being recalled fondly for his horsebacking feats, which included 13 Breeders' Cup victories, four times leading North America in purse earnings, his relentless skill in driving horses home in deep stretch, and a willingness to help other racetrackers while being an articulate, humble spokesperson for the sport.

But the as-yet-unconfirmed circumstances of his death are also fraught with concerns that his passing was caused by a relapse into alcohol and/or substance abuse, the twin addictions against which Gomez struggled mightily to overcome as he drifted in and out of the sport over the past several decades.

TDN could not independently confirm a Daily Racing Form report published late on Dec. 14 that said Gomez had been primarily living in a Tucson-area trailer, but had recently checked the Desert Diamond Casino hotel, where his body was allegedly found on Wednesday. The Nogales Highway property is part of tribal land controlled by the Tohono O'odham Nation, and no one at various tribal offices would answer questions via phone on Thursday.

Dr. Rudolph Alvarado, an award-winning author who collaborated with Gomez on his 2012 book, “The Garrett Gomez Story: A Jockey's Journey Through Addiction & Salvation,” said in a Thursday phone interview that the time he spent helping Gomez shape his life story included many emotional late-night phone calls during which Gomez sometimes cried or fell silent for long stretches, but the jockey always strove to tell the truth so that others could learn from his experiences.

“I'm greatly saddened to hear the news of his passing. I was struck by the suddenness of it all,” Alvarado said. “I'm always going to remember the long discussions that we had together about the struggles that he had with alcohol and drugs, how open he was to answering every question that I had.

“He went back to Arizona searching for peace, trying to escape, trying to find a place where he could find quiet. But I think the quiet [led to] his abusing drugs and alcohol again. We're hearing that that's the case, but it hasn't been confirmed as of yet…Even though I knew he preferred isolation and solitude, I find it ironic that his life ended the way that it did, in a room, by himself. I think that that's where he always went to find his peace, by himself, in a darkened room with the curtains drawn, the TV set probably on a horse racing channel, and then just drinking or doing whatever [drugs] he's doing as much as he can.”

Gomez last rode in a Thoroughbred race Oct. 5, 2013, at Keeneland Race Course. He then went inactive for about 20 months prior to announcing his retirement in June 2015. According to various published reports, Gomez had lived in Duarte, California, near Santa Anita Park while riding, but moved to Tucson in 2014 after splitting from his second wife, Pam.

Alvarado said Gomez's struggles with substance abuse seemed to come in spurts every six or seven years, and that after Gomez quit riding, Alvarado asked him if he thought he would ever relapse.

“He said, 'I don't know. You never know,'” Alvarado recounted. “He knew that much about [addiction]. He would never be one to say 'never again,” because I don't think he trusted himself enough to feel that way.

“Garrett always took responsibility for whenever he was doing drugs or alcohol, and I think a lot of jockeys fight against that responsibility. He always–and he told me this on numerous occasions–said that whenever he did wrong, he always 'fessed up to it right away; that he himself knew when it was time to back away and he did it voluntarily because he knew [as a jockey] that it wasn't good for the sport, and he didn't want to be seen or remembered that way.”

Garrett Keith Gomez was born in Tucson on Jan. 1, 1972, sharing the universal North American birthdate with the Thoroughbreds that would provide his livelihood. According to a Keeneland biography, his father, Louie, was a jockey for many years in the Southwest, and his mother, Sandy, said the family moved from place to place “like gypsies.” Gomez dropped out of high school in the tenth grade to start riding at Santa Fe Downs, where he won his first race in 1988. He and his father rode against each other in at least four races.

As his talent became evident, Gomez graduated to bigger tracks: The California fairs circuit, Ak-Sar-Ben and Fonner Park in Nebraska, and eventually to Oaklawn Park and Arlington Park, where he got his first taste of big-money stakes racing in the mid-1990s with graded wins in the Arkansas Derby, American Derby, and Secretariat S. Riding a wave of success, he then moved his tack to Southern California, where he routinely topped the standings and formed alliances with the nation's top trainers.

Yet even as he enjoyed skyrocketing achievements on the track, Gomez's difficulties behind the scenes with substance abuse had already taken root. According to a 2012 ESPN.com article, “his personal life was a shambles. There was time spent in a psych ward in Little Rock, Ark., when he was 24 years old. There were benders that lasted for days, often weeks. He survived multiple drunken car crashes and was arrested on several occasions.”

“Most of us start riding races at a very young age and if you're good, you're kind of set on a pedestal,” Gomez told ESPN.com. “You get treated differently. You meet these big people who can get you out of trouble if you mess up a little–they're trying to be helpful, but all the sudden you think you're untouchable, like, 'Ah ha, I can get out of anything.' But let me tell you something–reality sets in when you're looking at going to prison for narcotics possession and those guys aren't there to help you out anymore.”

Ever resilient, Gomez rebounded in 2005. On the two-year anniversary of his entering rehab, Gomez won two Grade I Breeders' Cup races, the Juvenile with Stevie Wonderboy and the Mile with Artie Schiller. In 2006, he began picking up regular mounts for the powerhouse stable of Todd Pletcher, for whom he won 16 stakes, and he led the nation in earnings with over $20 million.

For “Go-Go,” as he was nicknamed, the possibilities seemed as limitless as the awards, accolades, and big-race victories that were piling up. In 2007, Gomez broke Jerry Bailey's record for most stakes victories in a season (76). He won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in both 2007 and 2008, and continued to lead the continent in purse earnings through 2009. His top mounts during this time included Midnight Lute, Rags to Riches, and Lookin At Lucky.

The only sphere of his race-riding career in which Gomez was not as dominant came in Triple Crown races. His best finishes were second in the 2009 Derby with Pioneerof the Nile and third in the GI Preakness S. in 1994 with Concern.

In 2010, Gomez won the GI Breeders' Cup Classic with Blame, despite the fact he was injured in a spill just before the two-day championships. In addition, that win was overshadowed by the fact that Gomez and Blame had handed the wildly popular champion mare Zenyatta her only career loss, which unintentionally diminished the achievement of the victors.

“The ride he put up on Blame, he wasn't healthy when he rode her,” said jockey Gary Stevens, a contemporary of Gomez's. “He had fallen and I know he was hurting that day, but that's the kind of athlete he was. He rose to the occasion and overcame pain and was able to get the job done.”

In 2011, Gomez was voted the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award by his peers, an honor that recognizes high standards of personal and professional conduct both on and off the racetrack. In 2012, Gomez notched what would turn out to be his final Breeders' Cup score, a win by Beholder in the GI Juvenile Fillies.

Gomez relapsed in 2013 around the start of the Del Mar summer meet, admitting in published reports that he had turned to alcohol after a decade of sobriety. He rode sporadically that autumn at Keeneland then quietly slipped away from the sport, citing a desire to straighten out his life and spend time with his children.

In June 2015, Gomez announced his retirement in a Facebook post that read: “I would like to thank everyone in the sport of horse racing for all the support I ever received in my career. I enjoyed every horse I ever rode and I thank all of them for making my career. I'd like to apologize to all my fans for leaving the sport the way I did. Sometimes you have to do things in life for yourself. I'd like everyone to know I'm officially retired from the sport of horse racing. I thank everyone for all I achieved that had a part in my career. I had a lot of awesome moments in this game. BEST GAME IN THE WORLD. THANK YOU HORSE RACING.”

His career totals included 3,769 wins and $205,224,899 in purse earnings.

News of Gomez's death spread across the country on the morning of Dec. 15, 2016. He is survived by four children: A daughter, Shelby, and son, Collin, from his first marriage, and a daughter, Amanda, and son, Jared, from his second.

“It's sad,” Stevens said. “He's at peace now. He was as good a rider as I've ever ridden with, a helluva guy and a helluva a competitor. I didn't like getting beat but when he showed up, he was on his game.”

Added Dan Ward, an assistant to trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, “He was a super guy who always took care of the workers at the barn after a win….The day after Garrett won a big race he would always ask for names of the grooms to stake them.”

Alvarado, Gomez's biographer, said the final time they spoke via phone, he had asked about what Gomez wanted his legacy to be as a rider. In previous conversations, Alvarado said Gomez had always downplayed or deflected questions about whether he thought he might be worthy of induction in the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

“But that last time that we talked, in 2015, right before he announced his retirement, he said, 'You know, it really does mean a lot to me. But I don't know if I'm ever going to get in because I never won a Kentucky Derby or any of the big Triple Crown races,'” Alvarado recalled.

Alvarado countered by saying, “Do you think that's going to linger in people's minds that long?”

Gomez answered: “It doesn't matter whether it lingers in their minds. It does in mine.”

“And I think that was always with him, and it haunted him,” Alvarado said. -@thorntontd