Opportunistic Gutierrez confident in Nyquist
BALTIMORE -- Southern California’s top jockeys had their chance at riding Doug O’Neill’s other Kentucky Derby winner. It's just that I’ll Have Another hadn’t yet established himself when the trainer offered the mount in early 2012.
“They were like, ‘Are you crazy?’” O’Neill said. “We’re crazy, but we still need a jockey.”
Fortuitously, Mario Gutierrez stopped by O’Neill’s barn amid the search, asking whether horses were available to work. The jockey hopped aboard I’ll Have Another and from then on had the assignment -- as well as a partnership with owner Paul Reddam.
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Four years later, the same team has returned to Pimlico with another Preakness Stakes favorite, Nyquist, and in Gutierrez a jockey that's 2-for-2 on Derby horses.
“I have four years of riding with elite competition, like Mike Smith, Gary Stevens – all the top jockeys in the country,” Gutierrez said Thursday morning, evidencing his improvements.
“…I’m doing a little bit of stuff I wasn’t doing before. I wasn’t open to doing it four years ago.”
The 29-year-old from Veracruz, Mexico, sees a sports psychologist to work on his confidence. He visits a chiropractor twice a week. And he has a wife, Rebecca, who’s expecting a child.
It’s good to be Gutierrez, who saw talent in I’ll Have Another before his peers.
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After the first workout, O’Neill said, “Later, I found out on the way home with his agent at the time, he said, ‘Well, that horse is so good, there’s no way I’ll ever ride that horse.’”
While hanging out with his trainer, Reddam happened to see Gutierrez win on another horse at Santa Anita. The owner asked, "Who's that?" Well, he was the guy who worked I'll Have Another.
At odds of 43-1, the duo scored in Santa Anita Park’s Grade II Robert B. Lewis Stakes, then won the Santa Anita Derby and two legs of the Triple Crown series.
Nyquist has the chance to do one better than I’ll Have Another, a colt forced into retirement on the eve of the Belmont Stakes with a tendon injury. The son of Uncle Mo is 8-for-8 and has won five Grade I races, all on different tracks.
Nyquist galloped for the final time Thursday ahead of the Preakness. While Gutierrez wasn’t aboard – that job belongs to exercise rider Jonny Garcia – the jockey said it’s tough not to feel confident after witnessing it.
“I could stay here all day if I tried to describe the feeling when I’m on his back,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a good feeling. You almost know that what you have in your hands is a powerful animal just waiting for you to let go.
“…He loves to race. He loves the competition as well. If somebody comes close to him, he’ll pull his ears back and tread on.”