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Gomez Repeats As Autumn Meet Riding Champion
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (Dec. 22, 2007) - Garrett Gomez, the nation's leading money-winning jockey, won his second straight Autumn Meet riding title with 35 wins.
Gomez, who leaves California in April to ride in the East, returned following the Breeders' Cup, breaking Jerry Bailey's 2003 record with his 71st stakes win of 2007 aboard Spring Awakening here in the Moccasin on Nov. 11. Gomez led the 32-day Autumn Meet with five stakes wins, pushing his record yearly total to 75.
The title was the fourth for Gomez at Hollywood Park. Tyler Baze, leading rider at Oak Tree, finished second with 28 wins, while his cousin, Michael Baze, the leading jockey at the 2007 Spring/Summer Meet, was third with 26 wins.
Gomez, who will celebrate his 36th birthday on New Year's Day, led the nation with North American purses totaling $22.4 million entering Saturday's program and still has a chance of topping Bailey's 2003 record of $23.3 million. Including international races, his mounts have earned $23.4 million in 2007, about $900,000 shy of the record set by John Velazquez in 2005.
He rode Sunriver to victory in the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup in early December, his nation-high 12th Grade I victory of the year. He leads the nation with 42 graded stakes wins.
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