Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Gutierrez learns on, off track
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – For most riders, their biggest decision is whether to go inside or outside. For apprentice jockey Reylu Gutierrez, his biggest decision may be which career path to choose.
For now, this jockey gig is working out nicely for Gutierrez, whose 109 victories in 2018 figured to put him in contention for an Eclipse Award as North America’s champion apprentice jockey. If, however, success proves fleeting, Gutierrez has a backup plan: to become a physical therapist.
In 2017, Gutierrez graduated from Cortland State in upstate New York with a degree in exercise science. He was accepted into graduate school at Canisius, a private college in Buffalo, for the 2019 summer semester, where he would pursue a degree in health and human performance.
With each passing trip into the winner’s circle, Gutierrez seems more definitive that riding horses is his future.
“This is what I’m doing,” Gutierrez said about riding. “I can see that I can compete, so let’s do this.”
Gutierrez’s positive attitude and robust work ethic are mentioned as much as his talent when it comes to discussing his merits as a jockey.
This winter, Gutierrez has won 15 races at Aqueduct, including the $100,000 Damon Runyon Stakes on Dec. 31 aboard Not That Brady. On Dec. 8, Gutierrez rode four winners from eight mounts on the Aqueduct card. He will retain his apprentice status through March 9.
“I never thought I’d make it to NYRA,” Gutierrez said. “This was always my dream. Now that I’m here, if I can keep going even after my [apprenticeship] ends, there’s no reason to stop. Every day, I wake up with a smile on my face. I’m ready to roll every day.”
Gutierrez, 23, is the son of Luis Gutierrez, a trainer at Finger Lakes. Reylu’s uncle Jose Gutierrez was a rider at Finger Lakes before his retirement at the end of 2017. To hear Reylu tell it, both his father and uncle tried to keep him away from horses, believing he might have weight issues.
Though Gutierrez galloped horses at Finger Lakes while in school, both his father and uncle would not show him how to race ride until he graduated college.
“College was more important for us because if he didn’t graduate what would he do if something happens when he’s riding horses?” Luis Gutierrez said.
In his sophomore year of college, Gutierrez began to have second thoughts about becoming a jockey.
“After my second year, I didn’t really want to ride anymore,” Gutierrez said. “Things were going well in school. I’d go breeze horses, but I was focused on college. I said, ‘I’m done with the horses. I want a stable life.’ ”
During his senior year, Gutierrez studied in Germany. It was there that he realized he missed riding.
“I said, ‘I got to stick with the original plan, and then later in life I can always go back and continue with physical therapy,’ ” he said.
So, Gutierrez began the education of how to race ride. He was treated with tough love by the Finger Lakes community. Gutierrez said that track’s outrider, Tony Haines, was constantly critiquing him when he’d gallop in the morning. Gutierrez would hear it from the gate crew about the importance of getting horses out of the gate and keeping a straight path.
“Everybody expected more out of me,” Gutierrez said, “not necessarily because of talent but just because they liked me, and if I was going to do it, they wanted to see me do well. No one made it easy for me. At the moment, it was like, ‘C’mon guys,’ but now that I’m here, it’s like, ‘You guys are the best for doing that.’ ”
After winning his first race for his father in November 2017, Gutierrez went winless with his next 43 mounts.
“Everybody would put me on their worst horses because they wanted me to get experience and not get that fifth win,” said Gutierrez, referring to the victory that officially kicks off a jockey’s apprenticeship. “They didn’t want to rush me.”
Gutierrez picked up his fifth win on March 9 at Gulfstream. Eight days later, he was involved in a spill. At first, he was told he fractured his vertebrae. That diagnosis proved incorrect, and he was back riding four days later.
Gutierrez won six races during Gulfstream Park’s 201718 winter meet. He rode a total of 58 winners at the next two Gulfstream meets before moving to New York, where he rode nine winners during Aqueduct’s fall stand.
A lot of people have taken an interest in Gutierrez being successful. He said he gets advice from a number of riders, including Edgar Prado, Cornelio Velasquez, and brothers Irad and Jose Ortiz. Gutierrez acknowledged trainers Kathleen O’Connell, Anthony Pecoraro, and Jeremiah Englehart for playing roles in his development.
Mike Maker put Gutierrez on Dunph, who finished third in the $400,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park.
Englehart said “his work ethic” is among Gutierrez’s strongest attributes.
“He is able to think on the fly, and he always wants to learn,” Englehart said. “He finishes well, he uses his left hand, he does everything. To me, that makes it seem like he’s not a bug boy. He’s such a good kid, you pull for him to do well.”