Almeida’s Double: a Win, Grandpa’s Visit

For a jockey who has spent much of the year on the injured list, it’s going to be the happiest of Christmases for Goncalino Almeida.

For one thing, Almeida and his family are going to be hosting the 40-year-old jockey’s grandfather from Brazil.

For another, Almeida is riding and winning races again.

That wasn’t always a given in 1996, a year in which Almeida broke both legs and a collarbone.

The latter injury came at Hollywood Park on Nov. 17, in a spill past the finish line. Almeida has rebounded quickly, and on Saturday he notched his first win since the injury, riding Klassy Kim to a 3/4-length victory in the $61,300 Safely Kept Handicap.

Almeida, who rode in his native Brazil for 20 years before coming to the U.S. in 1989, sounds like the original optimist.

“Everybody tells me how much bad luck I’ve had,” he said Saturday. “But I say that I have good luck just to be here. Riding races is my life, and I’m doing it again. So I see that as good luck. My whole life is the races.”

A bonus is the holiday visit from his grandfather, also named Goncalino. He also rode in Brazil, trained horses there for 60 years and will be celebrating his 85th birthday on Christmas Day.

“We have always been very close,” said Almeida, who lives in Arcadia with his wife and their three children.

On Jan. 20 at Santa Anita, there was a two-horse spill in a race going down the hill, and Almeida broke both legs in the fall.

For more than two months he was in a hospital-like situation in his home.

“I watched everything that was on television,” he said. “The replays of the races. Football games. Soccer games. But I couldn’t wait to get back riding. I never thought of quitting. I couldn’t. I was hungry for the races.”

Almeida returned to action on June 13 at Hollywood Park. There were not a lot of mounts waiting for him and by September he had switched agents. Then came the next blip on the momentum screen, when he suffered a broken collarbone for the third time.

“I feel great,” he said Saturday. “My legs have healed, and they are normal. I feel good.”

Since coming back, Almeida had ridden in 13 races before Saturday’s win. The Safely Kept Handicap, not much of a feature for a Saturday afternoon at a major track, was still welcomed by Bill Thomas, who owns Klassy Kim, and by Mel Stute, who trains the 5-year-old mare. Almeida rides for them frequently. He finished second with her when Cat’s Cradle won the California Cup Distaff at Santa Anita in early November, and Klassy Kim hadn’t won since Almeida was aboard for the Monrovia Handicap in January.

“It’s been kind of a fairy tale around the track over the last couple of years with Mel,” Thomas said. “And Gonzo [Almeida] has done a very good job for us with a bunch of horses.”

As she frequently does, Klassy Kim made the lead Saturday and then held off Raw Gold, with Evil’s Pic finishing third. Klassy Kim, carrying high weight of 118 pounds, paid $6.40 as the favorite, running 5 1/2 furlongs on grass in 1:01 4/5.

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Gentlemen, who rarely runs on dirt, and Dramatic Gold, who always does, are the favorites today in the $100,000 Native Diver Handicap.

Gentlemen, 8-5 on the morning line, won the Citation Handicap on grass in his last start. In his debut for trainer Richard Mandella, he finished last in June at Hollywood, in the only dirt start he has made since arriving from Argentina early in the year.

Dramatic Gold, listed at 9-5, suffered cuts on his legs when traffic got congested in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine on Oct. 26. He won the Meadowlands Cup and the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap in the two starts before that and has earned $2.3 million, with seven wins, nine seconds and four thirds in 28 races.

Another threat in the Native Diver is Alyrob, who has been second and a well-beaten third in two starts since finishing eighth in the Kentucky Derby.

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Diplomatic Jet thrust himself into contention for an Eclipse Award with a late-running win Saturday in the $150,000 W.L. McKnight Handicap at Calder.

The balloting for male horses on grass will be the closest of the Eclipse votes, with Fastness, Da Hoss, Pilsudski, Singspiel and Mecke all having their supporters.

No matter what the vote count, Diplomatic Jet has added another winning chapter to the extraordinary career of 99-year-old Fred Hooper, who bred and owns the colt. Hooper, using a cane for support, was in the Calder winner’s circle Saturday, holding Diplomatic Jet’s lead shank as their picture was taken.

Horse Racing Notes

There were refunds of about $13,000 to show bettors after two scratches at the gate reduced the third-race field to four. . . . Trainer Mike Harrington hasn’t picked out a race for his Hollywood Futurity winner, Swiss Yodeler, but he won’t shorten him up in distance and said that the next race likely would be 1 1/16 miles, the same distance as the Futurity. “The horse didn’t do well at Del Mar because he wasn’t quite himself,” Harrington said. “If I had to do it all over, I wouldn’t have even run him down there. But that’s what racing’s all about isn’t it? Using hindsight and then seeing everything perfectly.”