NEWS
Calder-based trainer Gomez dies at 78
Posted: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 10:28 AM
FRANK GOMEZ
Jim Lisa photo
by Jeff Lowe
Frank Gomez, the early trainer of eventual champions Cherokee Run, Princess Rooney, and Smile, died on December 23 at his home in Pembroke Pines, Florida. He was 78.
Gomez had retired in November because of declining health.
Gomez captured more than 100 stakes victories at Calder Race Course, his base since the track’s inception in 1971. He was a charter inductee of the Calder hall of fame.
In choosing to remain at Calder and rarely ship horses elsewhere, Gomez had no trouble watching his best horses move on to greater achievements with other trainers.
“There’s nothing I like more than to see a horse that I gave up do good,” Gomez told Florida Horse in 2005.
A native of Limerick, Ireland, Gomez was an assistant to Barry Ryan in New York when Racing Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud offered him a string to train for Tartan Farms in South Florida in 1970.
“Scotty Schulhofer recommended him to me,” Nerud said on Wednesday. “Frank did a good job. He was a first-class man; never, never had a bad word toward anyone. I was happy I started him. It was an honor to have helped him.”
Gomez won Calder training titles in 1980-’81, '82-’83, and '92. He also led the standings at Gulfstream Park in 1982, the year Princess Rooney scored wins in the Frizette Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park and Gardenia Stakes (G2) at The Meadowlands.
Princess Rooney added wins in the 1983 Ashland Stakes (G2) and Kentucky Oaks (G1) before joining trainer Neil Drysdale, for whom she won the ’84 Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) and earned the Eclipse Award as champion older female.
Smile swept the Florida Stallion Stakes in 1984 and won the ’85 Arlington Classic (G1) before joining Schulhofer’s barn and securing champion sprinter honors in ‘86 with a victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
Gomez picked Cherokee Run out of the 1992 Ocala Breeders’ Sale Co.’s February Calder two-year-olds in training sale. After notching six wins for Gomez, Cherokee Run moved on to Frank Alexander’s barn and won the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
Gomez also swept the Florida Stallion Stakes in ‘91 with Naked Greed. In 2005, In Summation won two of the three Florida Stallion Stakes for Gomez and later became a Grade 1 winner with trainer Christophe Clement.
Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer
