Gomez doubles his Sunshine pleasure

A five-day break in racing at Santa Anita certainly didn’t bother Garrett Gomez.

Fresh off his first Eclipse Award win as the country’s top jockey in 2007, Gomez continued his momentum Saturday, winning the two biggest local prizes in the eight-race Sunshine Millions series divided between Santa Anita and Florida’s Gulfstream Park.

Gomez, the leading rider at Santa Anita, which resumed racing after two days had to be canceled because of the condition of the much-troubled Cushion Track surface, won the $500,000 Filly And Mare Turf and the $1-million Classic for trainer Bill Mott.

Taking advantage of a perfect trip sitting close to a slow pace, Gomez and second choice Quite A Bride upset Nashoba’s Key in the Filly And Mare Turf. Then he rallied wide with 5-1 choice Go Between to take the Classic.

Given a seal of approval by jockeys who galloped horses over the surface about 9:30 a.m., the main track, which had a lot of overnight work done to it by track superintendent Richard Tedesco and his crew, continued to play exceedingly fast.

In fact, Bob Black Jack, a 3-year-old California-bred son of Stormy Jack, set a North American record for six furlongs in winning the $250,000 Dash. Ridden by David Flores, the 4-5 favorite, who is owned by Tim Kasparoff and trained by his brother Jim, ran the distance in 1:06.53, eclipsing the previous record of 1:06.60 set by G Malleah in 1995 at Turf Paradise in Arizona.

The loss in the Filly And Mare Turf was the second in a row for Nashoba’s Key after she had begun her career with eight consecutive victories.

The Silver Hawk mare, who is owned by breeder Warren Williamson and trained by Carla Gaines, finished more than a length behind Quite A Bride after being given too much to do by jockey Joe Talamo.

“She was too far back off a slow pace,” Gaines said. “She got to the winner right past the wire.”

In the Classic, Go Between won for the second time in as many starts on a synthetic track. Last fall, he won the Fayette at Keeneland.

“When I swung him out around the turn, he really cut and went to running,” Gomez said. “The pace pretty much set up the way we thought it would.”

While Nashoba’s Key was defeated at a short price in her first start of 2008, Ginger Punch did not disappoint in her return.

The 3-10 choice in the $500,000 Sunshine Millions Distaff at Gulfstream Park, Ginger Punch, the champion older filly/mare of 2007 on the strength of her win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff last fall, rolled to a 6 3/4-length win under jockey Rafael Bejarano.

Owned by breeder Frank Stronach and trained by Bobby Frankel, the 5-year-old Awesome Again mare won for the eighth time in 15 starts.

About 30 minutes later, Mott added another Millions win when War Monger, the 8-5 favorite, blew past pacesetter Lucky J.H. in the final eighth of a mile and went on to a comfortable victory in the $500,000 Turf.

The other two Millions events at Gulfstream belonged to jockey Edgar Prado. He directed favored Benny The Bull to a come-from-behind win in the $300,000 Sprint, then led throughout to win the $250,000 Oaks with 5-2 second choice American County.

Attorney Neil Papiano told the Daily Racing Form that he would appeal Jeff Mullins’ 90-day suspension stemming from a positive drug test on one of the trainer’s horses in 2006.

The California Horse Racing Board announced Friday that Mullins had been cited because Rob’s Coin, who finished second in the seventh race at Hollywood Park on July 8, 2006, tested above the threshold level for the local anesthetic mepivacaine in a post-race urine sample.

The CHRB adopted the decision of administrative law judge David Roseman. Seventy of the 90 days will be stayed if Mullins follows all horse racing laws and CHRB regulations during a one-year probationary period. The suspension is supposed to begin Feb. 15.

bob.mieszerski@latimes.com