Nyquist, ridden by Mario Gutierrez, won the Florida Derby in AprilThe Associated Press
Four years ago, when unknown jockey Mario Gutierrez won the Kentucky Derby riding I'll Have Another, his victory seemed like a fluke, a lucky jockey along for the ride on a great horse.
The jockey and the horse were a brief sensation, but after it was over, Gutierrez struggled. He had raw talent, but competition to ride among top jockeys at Santa Anita Park, near Los Angeles, was difficult. The low came in 2014, two years after the Derby, when Gutierrez fell to the No. 100-ranked jockey in the United States.
Off the track, his life took a turn. Gutierrez married at 28, in early 2015. Then, encouraged by his wife, Rebecca, he undertook a more rigorous training regime – sports psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning. It was inspired by the fighters the two enjoyed watching in boxing and mixed marital arts.
Gutierrez's comeback ride quickly gained momentum. His winnings doubled last year, and he cracked the top 30 for the first time. Of the horses he rode, one was a preternaturally calm and unusually mature two-year-old colt named Nyquist, owned and trained by the same duo behind I'll Have Another.
Today, Gutierrez is ranked among the top 10 riders in the United States and is three weeks away from a second run at the Kentucky Derby. Nyquist enters the race undefeated in seven outings and is the favourite after decisively winning an early April showdown in the Florida Derby against another unbeaten horse, Mohaymen.
In Florida, Monayhan was the narrow favourite. Gutierrez's work aboard Nyquist was saluted. "What a ride here by Mario Gutierrez," a Florida Derby announcer exclaimed.
"I feel that I belong," Gutierrez said in a phone interview this week.
Through several years of losing, he did not doubt that he would get back to the Kentucky Derby. "That's one of the things that I never lost," he said. "I knew somehow. I never spoke it out loud. In my head, I had the feeling that I was going to go back."
Horse racing, a sport of instincts and luck, is one where many horses run and many jockeys ride, but only a small fraction ever experience the pageantry of the 170,000 revellers dressed up and drinking mint juleps at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Derby day, the first Saturday in May. It is a herald of spring.
A typical full field of 20 horses is expected to run in the Derby this year. But the 20 are the 0.1 per cent: More than 20,000 thoroughbreds are foaled each year in the United States. Getting a ride on a great one is tough. Finding one is much more so.
"To have a horse worthy of entering, you just feel like the luckiest guy in the world," said Nyquist's trainer, Doug O'Neill. "Trying to find one, it's throwing darts in the dark."
This year's Derby should see more excitement than usual, coming the year after American Pharoah finally broke the nearly four-decade Triple Crown drought, winning the Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Thirteen horses had previously come close, winning the first two but not the third. I'll Have Another, in 2012, was one of them, scratched from the Belmont a day before the race because of injury.
American Pharoah spurred horse racing out of its decades-long decline, for a while at least, back on to the front pages. Jockey Victor Espinoza was cast on Dancing with the Stars. Nyquist, a Derby favourite that has Triple Crown potential, if he can win the Derby, will add to the buzz.
Gutierrez's long ride back is a lucky one. Horse racing, and the gambling that underpins it, is not a sport of loyalty. Jockeys are commodities, like hockey coaches. "The easiest one to blame is the jockey," O'Neill said of when things go wrong. This makes the sustained partnership between Gutierrez, O'Neill and owner Paul Reddam unusual.
Gutierrez grew up in a small town in Mexico and rode quarter horses as a teenager. He moved to Mexico City and was spotted at 19 by a trainer from Vancouver. Gutierrez made the leap to Canada. The first person he met was his future wife, Rebecca, who picked him up at the airport.
The young jockey was a winner during five years at Hastings Racecourse, a small track in east Vancouver. In late 2011, at Santa Anita, he was spotted by Reddam. A couple months later, Gutierrez was on I'll Have Another, riding the long shot to victory and, thereafter, to the brink of the Triple Crown.
Reddam and O'Neill stood by Gutierrez, as the young jockey worked to stake a place at Santa Anita. Gutierrez remained their go-to rider and has since established himself among the Hall of Fame jockeys who regularly ride at the track.
"Loyalty has been rewarded, all the way around," Reddam said after the win at the Florida Derby. "You don't see that much in racing." (Reddam, from Windsor, Ont., is a lifelong Detroit Red Wings fan and has named horses after players. Nyquist's namesake is Wings forward Gustav Nyquist.)
Gutierrez's slumps are part of a sport of chance, O'Neill said. "Like I've had, like everyone else in the game has had. He's tough. As he dips, he works harder. And he's proven that if he's on a top horse, he gets it done."
Gutierrez's redoubled regime includes an hour each week with a sports psychologist, who has helped him stay positive, allaying his tendency to get morose in losing skids. A nutritionist has reduced portion sizes and cut out colas. Strength and conditioning has made him hardier. More recently, he has worked with a flexibility trainer, one hour twice a week, focused only on yoga-like stretching.
"I started really working hard on myself," Gutierrez said. After the Kentucky Derby, he had to rebuild his career from the ground up. "It was very hard to keep things positive."
As Gutierrez began to rally, a year ago, Nyquist arrived. The horse, the son of Uncle Mo, a former star as a two-year-old, cost $400,000 – more than 10 times the price of I'll Have Another. Gutierrez felt the potential immediately on Nyquist's first quarter-mile workout. Most young horses are nervous and jumpy when they get on a track. Jockeys have to work just to keep them in a straight line. O'Neill described Nyquist as "an old soul."
Being the favourite entering the Kentucky Derby is one thing. The race is a chaotic, unpredictable. But Gutierrez believes that Nyquist has the ability to follow American Pharoah into horse-racing history.
"American Pharoah proved there can be a Triple Crown winner, even though before everybody said we would never see another Triple Crown winner," Gutierrez said. "I have 100-per-cent confidence that Nyquist can make an even bigger impact."