Baze has a lot more reasons to smile now

If there were such a thing as a comeback-jockey-of-the-year award, Tyler Baze would be a shoo-in.

Baze, who turned 25 in October, was battling an eating disorder, depression and an alcohol problem all at the same time earlier this year. It got so bad that in May he quit riding during the spring-summer Hollywood Park meet.

Now, through the help of a team of people that included a nutritionist, a live-in personal trainer/life coach, and a new agent, Baze is sober and a lot happier as he tries to win the Oak Tree riding title on the meet’s final weekend at Santa Anita.

“Going from the low of all lows to one of the highs of all highs -- being the leading rider -- well, that’s just unheard of,” Baze said Friday at Santa Anita’s Clocker’s Corner.

“When times are bad, they’re bad. I was miserable, depressed. I wasn’t a happy person. I wasn’t a happy person to be around at all.”

Baze, who is smiling a lot these days, is currently on top of the Oak Tree jockey standings with 27 wins, two more than his closest competitor, Victor Espinoza.

Both have seven mounts today and 10 Sunday.

Baze rides Add Heat in today’s California Cup Classic, the highlight of the 10-race Cal Cup card featuring California-bred horses.

Garrett Gomez, who will ride 8-1 shot Celtic Dreamin in the Classic, is the hottest jockey around. Gomez, who last weekend won the Bill Shoemaker Award as the Breeders’ Cup’s top jockey, had winners in eight of his first 11 races after returning to Oak Tree.

On Sunday, closing day for the five-week Oak Tree meet, Baze will be aboard Black Mamba in the Grade II $150,000 Las Palmas Handicap, a one-mile turf race for fillies and mares.

Espinoza, who does not have a mount in today’s Cal Cup Classic, will be aboard Double Trouble in the Las Palmas.

Black Mamba and Baze could be double trouble for Espinoza. Black Mamba is considered a strong contender, and Baze said, “She’s a tremendous filly, the best I’ve been on in a long time.”

As for Baze, he says he is in the best shape of his life, both mentally and physically.

He gives a lot of credit for that to his new agent, Ronnie Ebanks, whom he calls “a close friend who you can talk about anything to,” and Mike Rossi, who for two months lived with Baze in Monrovia as his personal trainer and life coach. Baze calls Rossi, who in the past has worked with a number of big-name actors and athletes, “a real life saver.”

Baze, a cousin of Michael Baze and a second cousin of horse racing’s all-time leading rider, Russell Baze, was the Eclipse Award apprentice jockey of the year in 2000 and in 2004 won the riding title at the spring-summer meet at Hollywood Park. He was only 21 at the time, making him the youngest jockey to win a riding title at the Inglewood track. But in 2005 a downward spiral began for Baze that included a 31-race losing streak in late 2006 and early 2007. An eating disorder led to poor health, which led to depression and heavy beer drinking.

Baze’s former agent, Ivan Puhich, who is still involved in an advisory role, took his client to nutritionist Phil Goglia in Santa Monica. “I was weak, not healthy, wasn’t thinking right and had no business,” Baze said, meaning he was getting no mounts.

It was Goglia who hooked Baze up with Rossi.

Two months of 24/7 care normally would have cost Baze about $60,000, but Rossi charged him only about half that.

“He’s just the nicest, most sincere young man I’d ever met and I saw he really needed help,” Rossi said. “And he wasn’t riding at the time.”

Rossi, who owns a business called Gym on Site, has a 45-foot production trailer complete with office, shower, kitchen and gym. The trailer and Rossi spent the months of May and June at Baze’s home.

“We worked out twice a day, seven days a week,” Baze said.

By the opening of the Del Mar meet, Baze was ready to go back to work. Through the help of counseling, he quit drinking. And he ended up winning 19 of his 152 races at Del Mar to finish seventh in the jockey standings. Cousin Michael won the riding title there with 50 wins in 284 races.

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larry.stewart@latimes.com