More on the talented Mario Gutierrez

Willes: Mario Gutierrez’s story already beyond any fairytale

 

 

By Ed Willes, The Province May 19, 2012 

Fans of Vancouver jockey Mario Gutierrez watch him race to victory in the Preakness on the big screen at Hastings Park on Saturday.

Photograph by: Les Bazso , PNG

Shortly after the race that changed Mario Gutierrez’s life — Part 1 — Glen Todd told the jock Hollywood would come calling for him.
And he wasn’t talking about Hollywood Park.
But even Todd, who had a front-row seat for the amazing journey of the young rider, was having trouble processing the second act of the most remarkable horse-racing story of this year, last year or any year going back to Secretariat.
Saturday in Baltimore, Gutierrez, the jockey who was making $125 a week as an apprentice in Mexico City six years ago and who was stuck out at Hastings Racecourse as recently as last year, rode I’ll Have Another to victory at the Preakness.
The win, which came two weeks after its equally improbable win in the Kentucky Derby, gives the Windsor-based horse a chance to become the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978.
He’ll also try to become the 12th horse in racing history to win the Crown. This will happen in three weeks at The Belmont.
Those, at least, are the facts of the story.
As for the details, the best writer on his best day would have trouble crafting this narrative.
“It’s unbelievable,” Todd said at Hastings with the grandstand still shaking with excitement.
“You can’t believe it. It’s like Mario said, ‘If this is a dream, don’t wake me up.’
“But I had faith. Everything is falling into place. It’s like you know the result before it happens. He’s going to win the Triple Crown. I know it.”
And who would doubt him at this point?
Saturday, in virtual replay of the Derby, Gutierrez and his horse ran down the favored Bodemeister, catching him over the final 100 yards and winning by a neck. Three thousand miles away, the crowd of 10,000 at Hastings were on its feet for the entire race and exploded as the chestnut crossed the finish line.
“This is the greatest thing to happen to us,” said Wayne Russell, the senior steward who’s been at the Vancouver track since 1963.
“This is the most unbelievable shot in the arm.”
Gutierrez was back at Hastings shortly after his win at The Derby. He still calls Russell, Poppa Wayne. You can’t make this stuff up.
“He’s like Bobby Orr,” Todd said of Gutierrez. “He’s gifted. The horse knows. The last guy I could see do that with his hands was (Hall of Fame jockey) Bill Shoemaker.
“This is something else. It’s like coming out of the Mexican (baseball) league to Nat Bailey to Game 7 of the World Series in one year.”
And it just keeps getting better.
Todd, the leading owner at Hastings, snapped up Gutierrez when he came to Vancouver six years ago and now considers him part of his extended family. He was there when the young jock struggled with his early success — “I said, ‘You’re not going down that road and he listened. He was there when Gutierrez emerged as the top rider at Hastings. And he was there when he moved to Los Angeles to race in the big leagues.
He’s seen it all. But it still seems surreal; still seems too good to be true. In the run-up to The Preakness, Todd had race fans making a pilgrimage to his joint, The Derby Bar and Grill, to bet fifty bucks on the, “Canadian kid.”

He received a five-page letter from an elderly women in Victoria, telling him how much Gutierrez’s win had meant to her. She didn’t have a computer or access to e-mail, but somehow tracked him down after she heard Todd’s interview on CBC.
“I’m not an emotional man, but I’ve tears in my eyes a few times in the last couple of weeks,” Todd said.
He hasn’t been alone. A week after winning the Derby, Gutierrez returned to his former track and broke down at the outpouring of emotion. On Saturday, Todd said he’ll have him back before The Belmont.
“It seemed to work last time,” he said.
“It’s a fairy-tale story, but it’s real,” Todd continued. “Why shouldn’t it go on? He has the horse. And the best part about this? It won’t change Mario. He’ll be able to drive a more expensive car, but he won’t change.”
Even if everything around him does change.

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/sports/Willes+Mario+Gutierrez+story+already+beyond+fairytale/6650877/story.html#ixzz1vQ3HIjbA