Trainer Gomez Endures a Bittersweet Week at the Track

It was a week of mixed emotions for trainer Jaime Gomez.

He did well enough, placing two horses among the top five finishers in the $150,000 Governor’s Cup Futurity Saturday, a 350-yard race that showcased some of the top 2-year-olds in the West.

But he was disappointed when one of his 7-5 favorites, Las Alamitos, threw a shoe as it left the starting gate and finished fifth.

The previous night, he watched as his former understudy, Jose Flores, saddled the winner in the $128,000 Vessels Maturity. The three-quarters-of-a-length victory by the rejuvenated IB Quick over The Money Crunch was considered a major accomplishment.

A year ago, IB Quick, a 7-year-old gelding, was running tired. But fine work by Flores and his cousin, jockey Eddie Aceves, appears to have returned IB Quick to his previous form. Owned by Flores’ father, Antonio Flores, the horse posted a career-best 19.74 seconds in the 400-yard race.

“Jose has really rejuvenated IB Quick,” trainer Connie Hall said before the trials. “He has made that horse one of the best around here.”

Gomez shakes his head in amazement. He has watched Flores and Aceves with a bit of pride. Flores, 21, once worked for Gomez and trainer Rodney Hart. He and Aceves, 20, were considering a career in Antonio Flores’ gardening business when Flores decided to break out on his own in the horse business.

Flores, a native of Jalisco, Mexico, would bring horses to Gomez from Mexican ranches and ask Gomez to train them. When he obtained his trainer’s license about four years ago, Gomez had the time to do that and the pair had some successes together. But as Gomez’s business grew, he had less time to give to Flores.

“I told him he was going to have to get his own training license,” Gomez said. “I had a full stable of my own. So, I got him a book and he passed the test and now he’s doing pretty good on his own.”

Friday’s victory was the first in a major stakes race for Flores and Aceves. Perhaps Aceves benefited most from the victory aboard IB Quick. He rides sparingly at the track, and when he does take a mount, it never has been a favorite. Frustrated a couple of months ago, Aceves started questioning his riding ability.

“It is pretty tough to get a horse like IB Quick,” he told a track spokesman. “When you get one as good as him you know right away your luck is about to change.”

Flores and Aceves come and go as they please. Not long after posting the biggest victory in their short careers, they left the course and went to a cousin’s wedding in Jalisco.

“Aceves comes in, runs a race, and out the door he goes,” track spokesman John Petti said. “We don’t even have a phone number on him.”

When Gomez was asked when the pair would return, he was unclear.

“Maybe tomorrow. Maybe the next day,” he said.

But Gomez lavished praise on the two men.

“They are really nice people and the kid [Aceves] has a lot of guts. He has a lot of talent,” Gomez said.

Flores told track regulars that he had observed workouts of IB Quick since last year and felt the horse was not reaching its potential.

“I felt that if I could change just a few things he could be a better horse,” Flores said. “This year I’m giving him plenty of time to rest between races and we are not working him as much. Right now he acts like a very fresh 2-year-old and that’s a great advantage.”

IB Quick probably will run next in the Go Man Go Handicap Aug. 16. The quarter horse has won 17 of its 44 starts, bringing in $195,902. It also is eligible to compete in the $300,000, 440-yard Champion of Champions Dec. 22.

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Meanwhile, Gomez was left to think about the what-ifs.

First Down Dash, a filly owned by the Dutch Masters II Stable, appears to be snake-bitten, Gomez says.

“I had this gut feeling about Las Alamitos a couple of days before the race,” Gomez said. “She went cast one day in training. And she had some ankle swelling that I had to work on very hard.

“Then she went out of the gate during the race and lost a shoe. It was just one of those things.”

Uncas, ridden by Kip Didericksen, captured the Futurity title by three quarters of a length over Gomez’s Mexican-bred Doc’s First Card, the other 7-5 favorite.

“After he broke on top, he never looked back,” Didericksen said about Uncas. “He drifted in a little bit at the end, but luckily that did not really affect him.”

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Spencer Childers became only the second horseman in the history of the race course to win three Governor’s Cup Futurity races when the gelding Uncas led wire to wire in the $150,000 Grade 1 stakes Saturday.

The Fresno native also posted wins with Jungle Raised in 1994 and Sir Rambler in 1976. He joins owner David Payne, who won with Splash Bac last year, Totally Illegal in 1993 and with Rambac in 1988. Totally Illegal was co-owned by John Radin.

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The track will be dark on Thursday, but racing will continue Friday through Sunday. The Gold Rush Derby for 3-year-olds is scheduled for Friday and the Elan Again Stakes Sunday.

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A controversial finish at the All-Star Quarter Horse Thoroughbred Jockey Challenge Saturday did little to diminish the fact that the event raised $15,000 for the Don MacBeth Fund for disabled and injured jockeys.

Jockey Joe Badilla’s mount in the second of two challenge races was disqualified and placed last, allowing Didericksen to share the title of “fastest jockey in the West” with thoroughbred counterpart Chris Antley.

Riders earned points depending on how their mounts finished, and Badilla was ahead after the first race. “This is the third time that I have been here for the challenge and it is always a fun event,” Antley said.

Notes

Slicer won the $110,000 Golden State Derby Saturday and has won three straight races. . . . The stakes drought continues for track owner Edward Allred. Keeps finished second to Slicer and highly touted Secret Seraph finished third in the Futurity. Although many have posted top qualifying times, an Allred horse has not won a major stakes this year. . . . In reaffirming an earlier decision, a Sacramento judge imposed a $1,500 fine on the California Harness Horsemen’s Assn. for refusing to provide tapes of its board meetings to attorneys for Los Alamitos. In April, Judge Thomas M. Cecil threw out a class-action suit against Los Alamitos that was filed by harness owner Ronald Zumbrun on behalf of harness horsemen associations. Cecil also fined Zumbrun $15,000 for filings that he termed “devoid of merit.” Harness racing associations are at odds with Los Alamitos over the length of its season. . . . Dashing Folly won for the fourth consecutive time, when she bested the field in the $12,000 Florentine Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. . . . Jockey Ramon Rechy has decided to remain at Los Alamitos for the rest of the meeting. Rechy, 18, recently rode First Stormy Copy to victory in a non-stakes race and will not return to Mexico City, where he has appeared at the Hipodromo de Las Americas track.