Jan 8th, 09
After nearly breaking Jerry Bailey's record for single-season purse earnings and winning a Grade III race, Garrett Gomez led all North American jockeys in purse earnings with $300,098 for the week ended January 6.
Gomez, who turned 37 on New Year's Day, rode multiple graded stakes winner Jibboom to victory on January 3 in the Monrovia Handicap (GIII) at Santa Anita Park for his most lucrative win of the week.
The Tucson, Arizona native started his week with a bang as he chased Bailey's 2003 record of $23,354,960 in purse earnings on the final day of 2008 at Santa Anita.
Needing victories on all four of his mounts to eclipse Bailey's record, Gomez won on his first three rides to climb within $19,681.
On his final mount, though, Gomez rode second-choice Baroness Thatcher to a third-place finish in the Kalookan Queen Handicap to finish $10,6009 shy of the Racing Hall of Fame jockey's mark.
Gomez's total of $23,344,351 in purse earnings for 2008 ranks second on the all-time-single-season purse earnings list. For 2009, Gomez ranks second with $231,626 in purse earnings among North American riders.
One of the world's top jockeys, Gomez has won eight Breeders' Cup races including four in 2008. He won the Bill Shoemaker Award, given to the top jockey at the Breeders' Cup in 2004, '07, and '08.
The 2007 Eclipse Award winner as outstanding jockey lives in Duarte, California with his wife, Pam, and children Amanda, Shelby, Jared and Collin..
