Pinoy jockey and the Kentucky Derby

SACRAMENTO, California—Filipino jockey Ramon Guce lit up Hollywood Park with an easy victory aboard a colt named Admission last Saturday, the same day the fabled Kentucky Derby went off under the twin spires of Louisville’s Churchill Downs.

When his horse crossed the wire after the mile-and-sixteenth eighth race, Guce said his fondest dream flashed in his mind again: He aboard a three-year-old thoroughbred in a future edition of the “most exciting two minutes in sports.”

Guce, back in the saddle after a seven-week hiatus due to injury, reminded me that every jockey longs to ride in the Derby someday. “Look at Mario Gutierrez; he dreamt it, now he’s living it,” he said.

Gutierrez, the newest member of California’s close-knit colony of jockeys, guided I’ll Have Another—a 19-1 shot—to a one-and-a-half-length upset win in the 138th running of the world’s most famous horse race.

A 25-year-old from Mexico who was riding at lesser-known Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, Canada, Gutierrez arrived at Santa Anita Park only this winter. From a bug boy to a full-pledged rider in a short span, Gutierrez won the Santa Anita Derby last month, also aboard I’ll Have Another—an outstanding horse overlooked by Derby oddsmakers mainly because this year’s field was the deepest in years.

Gutierrez became the first jockey to win in his Derby debut since Stewart Elliot in 2004. Both Gutierrez and Elliot, who is Canadian, were both riding in obscurity before their instant celebrity, a fact not lost on Guce.

“From Mexico to Hastings Park to the Kentucky Derby is pretty amazing,” said Guce of Gutierrez’s date with destiny.

Guce came to the United States from Manila in 1999 and, with true grit and determination, has become a living proof that Filipino athletes can excel in sports where a tree-top reach and hefty body are not required. He has become the winningest jockey at Los Alamitos, the smallest of the Los Angeles area’s horse race courses behind Hollywood and Santa Anita, where Ramon gets to ride on occasion.

“I am 44 years old with a lot of riding experience tucked under my belt,” said Guce. “Do I still have a chance to ride in the Derby? Definitely, like my idol Bill Shoemaker.”

The legendary Shoemaker, aboard Ferdinand, was the oldest jockey, at 54, to win at Kentucky in 1986. Bobby Baird was the oldest ever to saddle up for the Derby at 58 in 1978.

Ramon figured in a spill at Los Al in February. He underwent surgery for a broken right thumb that needed a metal pin to heal. He came back last month with a vengeance and has climbed up to second place in the racetrack’s current jockey standings.

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People who know about my lifelong friendship with another Ramon, fellow Inquirer columnist Ramon Tulfo, have been calling and e-mailing about my take on his so-called “Thrilla in Naia” with the celebrity couple of Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barreto and company.

I have not been in touch with Ramon. The only stuff I know about the airport incident comes from viewing a clip on You Tube that has gone viral overnight.

With apologies to American showman P.T. Barnum, the clip shows that there is a sucker puncher born every minute.