His cross-country feast comes in winner’s circles

While the rest of us will be tending to drumsticks and stuffing this weekend, jockey Garrett Gomez will be going for gravy.

It has been that kind of year for the 35-year-old from Duarte, who has gobbled up much of the spotlight among those who ride the most talented and expensive thoroughbreds.

He leads the country’s jockeys in winnings by a margin of about $3 million. He has won nearly $21 million in races on U.S. soil and $1 million more in international races. If he doesn’t win the Eclipse Award for top jockey this year, they’ll need to call for a recount.

His biggest milestone came Nov. 11 at Hollywood Park, when he rode Spring Awakening to victory in the $108,100 Moccasin Stakes. That was his 71st trip to the winner’s circle after a stakes race -- one with a purse of $45,000 or above -- the most in one year. Jerry Bailey had 70 in 2003, and Gomez went flying past that so fast that he conceivably could finish ’07 with 80.

Matter of fact, starting Thanksgiving Day, Gomez has a chance to really gorge himself. Also, to rack up a lot of frequent-flier miles.

“It’s really not going to be a lot of fun,” he says, referring to the flying he will be doing above ground. “You are in one place for about eight hours, then you are gone again. At the track. Back on the plane.”

He will ride a $16-million colt named Green Monkey in a $44,000 race Wednesday at Hollywood Park, then take his boots through security at LAX that night and head for Louisville and Churchill Downs on a red-eye flight. There, on Thanksgiving Day, he will ride a horse named Panty Raid in a $300,000 race. On Oct. 7, he won a $500,000 race aboard Panty Raid at Keeneland.

Thursday night, he’ll be back on a plane, heading west to Hollywood Park so he can ride Zann in the $400,000 Citation and The Leopard in the $100,000 Generous Stakes on Friday.

Friday night? Yup, back to LAX and heading east, this time to New York City and the $300,000 Cigar Mile on Saturday at Aqueduct, where he will ride Midnight Lute.

That’s the horse partly owned by a Tucson car dealer, who wanted to honor his friend Lute Olson, the University of Arizona basketball coach. Trainer Bob Baffert and his business sidekick, Mike Pegram, given the mandate to include Lute in the name, recalled the famous story of how Jerry Tarkanian left a prize recruit’s house at 9 one night, certain he had the kid. The next day, the player signed with Arizona and told Tark that he would have signed with UNLV but that Lute Olson had shown up later that night. Thus the name Midnight Lute.

As far as Gomez is concerned, the horse’s name should be Midnight Loot. Less than a month ago, Gomez won the $2-million Breeder’s Cup Sprint aboard him.

Saturday night, back to the friendly skies. And back to Hollywood Park for the ultimate double slice of pumpkin pie -- two $500,000 races on Sunday, the Hollywood Derby and the Matriarch, both Grade I races. Gomez will ride Twilight Meteor in the Derby and Wait a While in the Matriarch.

Then, about 10,000 miles by air later, and maybe 20 more by horseback, Monday will be his. Gomez, who last year led the country in jockey winnings too, will either rest or visit a bank vault. The way 2007 has gone, bet the latter.

“It’s been amazing,” Gomez says. “Last year was very good, but we started this year and told ourselves we’ll just see if we could top it.”

A way to look at the extent of Gomez’s success is to calculate his take of the 71 stakes victories so far this year. The total purses for those wins was $16,248,288, of which victory brings about 60% to the winning owners, or about $9.75 million. Of that, Gomez gets to pocket 10%, or about $975,000.

That is separate from his 10% of the other 164 races he has won this year, plus cuts of second- and third-place finishes.

And now, he gets to embark on the ultimate meat-and-potato weekend.

At the moment, nobody in the sport is riding as high in the saddle.

“He’s got the hands of Eddie D [Delahoussaye] and the strength of Laffit [Pincay],” says leading trainer Doug O’Neill. “Didn’t think I’d ever see that.”

Baffert, for whom Gomez won two Breeders’ Cup races last month and who has known Gomez since he was an infant, says he is now one of five or so “go-to” riders in the sport. “You go to him when you have a great horse, and you can trust him to not let you get beat,” he says.

Jon Court, a world-class jockey himself and a daily competitor of Gomez’s, walks by and asks who we’re writing about. When told, he smiles and says, “You got the right guy. Garrett’s the man.”

Only four years ago, Gomez was far from being the man. He was drinking, taking drugs and ruining a marriage that had produced two great kids. He missed all of 2003 and got back in time to win only 36 races in all of 2004. When his hero and idol, Bill Shoemaker, was being buried, Gomez was unable to attend the funeral. He was in jail, serving a 40-day term.

But, with the help of his wife, Pam, an agent named Ron Anderson who has put him on some sensational horses the last two years, and a newfound faith in himself, Gomez has put the pieces back together in spectacular fashion. Athletes who get off track, especially those who run afoul of the law, always talk about putting their past behind them. Gomez apparently has.

Gomez says he and Pam talk about the realization that it isn’t always going to be like this.

“We know that you usually get a short period of time for things to go this well,” Gomez says.

That’s reality. For Gomez, this weekend is a potential bonanza. Certainly not a time to slow down. To that end, his goal, for every ride, should be easy.

No turkeys.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.