In this photo provided by Benoit Photo, jockey Garrett Gomez rides Spring Awakening to victory at the Moccasin Stakes, Sunday, Nov. 11, 2007 at Hollywood Park, Inglewood, Calif. The win gave Gomez his 71st stakes win of the year, eclipsing Jerry Bailey’s record of 70 set in 2003. (AP Photo/Benoit Photo)

Garrett Gomez won his 71st stakes race this year and passed Jerry Bailey for the most in a year. Gomez rode the 2-year-old filly Spring Awakening to victory in the $100,000 Moccassin Stakes at Hollywood Park.

“At first when they kept telling me about it and telling me about it, I was just going like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah,’” Gomez told Blood-Horse after tying the record on Saturday. “But now that I’m there, it’s a nice feeling to be able to put my name up there with a guy like that (Bailey).”

From the Associated Press: Gomez and Spring Awakening, the heavy favorite in the 7-furlong sprint, sat a comfortable third on the backstretch then dueled with Sindy Jacobson in the homestretch before taking the lead and pulling away for a two-length victory.

“When we turned for home, these two fillies really got to running,” Gomez said. “I couldn’t ask her to run too much faster. Her little legs were going a hundred miles an hour. I didn’t put her in the race, she put herself in the race. She was doing it all on her own.”

Gomez has all but locked up an Eclipse Award, especially after winning two races on the undercard at the Breeders’ Cup. He now has 21.5 million in earnings in 1,107 starts in 2007.

Garrett Gomez will have to wait on the record for most stakes race wins in a year after failing to win the War Chant Stakes at Hollywood Park on Wednesday.

Gomez was on the Swiss-bred Karazi, finishing sixth in the nine-horse field.

“We wanted to see if we could get him nice and relaxed,” Gomez told the Associated Press. “Maybe he just doesn’t have that kind of turn of foot. We’ll just go back to the drawing board and see what to do with
him.”

Karazi’s stablemate, Warning Zone, ridden by Jose Valdivia Jr., won the race while Bad Bay took second, and paid over $28 to show.

Any Given Saturday put out to stud

Well, not really much more to report than that. The stud fee, according to the AP, was $40,000. Fellow Breeders’ Cup contender Street Sense went for $75,000 last week.

Any Given Saturday finished sixth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and won the Grade II Dwyer Stakes and Grade II Brooklyn Handicap. He finished second to Street Sense in the Tampa Bay Derby in the spring.

Mario Pino reaches 6,000 wins

Mario Pino became the 15th jockey to reach 6,000 wins Wednesday, riding Pass Pay at Laurel Park to a win.

From the AP: Pino, who rode Hard Spun to a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, reached 5,999 earlier Wednesday aboard Golden Shades before winning atop Pass Play.

“It was more pressure than riding Hard Spun,” Pino said. “I told my wife I felt pressure with these last two winners. I felt butterflies in the Derby, but nothing like this. The pressure was mounting. Once I hit that wire all that emotion just busted out in me.”

Eleven of the 14 members ahead of Pino in the all-time standings are in Racing’s Hall of Fame.

Jockey Garrett Gomez is one win win shy of tying Jerry Bailey’s 2003 record of 70 wins in stakes races.

He’ll get his first chance Wednesday in the War Chant Stakes in what is opening day of Hollywood Park’s 32-day Autumn meet. Gomez will ride Karazi, the morning line favorite, in a one-mile race.

From the Associated Press: “Karazi, a Switzerland-bred son of Arazi, won three of seven starts in France before coming to the United States. He has finished fifth in each of his two starts, but faced strong competition in the La Jolla Handicap at Del Mar and the Oak Tree Derby at Santa Anita.

Karazi drew the inside post and will carry 121 pounds. Among the top challengers figure to be Sahara Heat, who will be ridden by Brice Blanc and carry 123 pounds; Warning Zone, Jose Valdivia Jr., 119 pounds, and Sandwaki, Corey Nakatani, 117 pounds.”

Gomez has earned over $21 million this year, winning 20 percent of his races and finishing in the money 52 percent of the time. He’s run 1,083 races this year.

Gomez will have a chance to redeem himself at this year’s Eclipse Awards after finishing runner-up to Edgar Prado in 2006.