Jockey Profile Huber Villa-Gomez Born: January 28, 1976 Birthplace: Ayacucho, Peru Residence: Tampa, FL Family: Son, Maxy; daughter, Abby First Win: Victorio, in Peru Started Riding: 1997 Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Presque Isle Downs Villa-Gomez captured his first graded-stakes triumph in October of 2015 by winning the Grade III Ontario Fashion Stakes at Woodbine in Toronto on Cactus Kris. In May, they won the Grade III Hendrie at Woodbine for the rider’s second graded-stakes victory. Villa-Gomez, who was approaching 1,800 career victories by late summer, missed the entire 2014-2015 Tampa Bay Downs season due to injury, but he returned to enjoy a strong meeting at Presque Isle Downs, finishing eighth with 31 victories. Villa-Gomez is the epitome of a lunchbucket jockey. He goes to work every day, quietly goes about his business and by the end of the day, he rewards his owners, trainers and backers with the best possible effort from their horses. A measure of the respect in which he is held came toward the tail end of the 2011-12 Tampa Bay Downs meeting, when he rode 11 winners during a seven-day stretch — for nine different trainers. Villa- Gomez began riding in his native Peru after he gained an interest in horses through a cousin who worked at a racetrack. “The first day I went to the track, that’s when I knew I wanted to ride,” he says. At 18 he attended jockey school in Peru, and won his first race there on Victorio. In 2011, he tied Pablo Morales for the Presque Isle Downs crown. During the 2010-11 Tampa Bay Downs meeting, Villa-Gomez was aboard Sneaking Uponyou for trainer Jamie Ness when the 5-year-old gelding set a six-furlong track record of 1:08.69 (since lowered) in the 2011 Florida Cup Hilton Garden Inn/Hampton Inn & Suites Sprint; the connections won the race again in 2014. When he’s not riding, Villa- Gomez enjoys playing with his children, Maxy and Abby. Gary Wales Born: December 3, 1985 Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland Residence: North Adams, MA Family: Wife, Katie; father, Colin; mother, Diane First win: Leading Character, Colonial Downs, 2008 Started Riding: 2006, Lingfield Park Racecourse, England Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Delaware Park Attending the races at Musselburgh Racecourse in East Lothian, Scotland with his grandfather as a youngster sparked a love of Thoroughbreds for Wales, who worked at the local stables before enrolling in the Northern Racing College in Doncaster, England when he was 17. In August of 2013, he was bidding to be leading jockey at Suffolk when he fractured his L2 vertebra in a spill, sidelining him for six weeks. Upon his return, he won on a mare named Thereisgoldahead trained by his wife, Katie Mancini-Wales. The couple met about eight years ago in South Carolina, where he was exercising horses and she was working for pinhooker Kip Elser. Wales had his best year in 2014, riding 51 winners. He is an avid golfer who played two summers ago at Gullane Golf Club in East Lothian, where Rickie Fowler won the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open. 36
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The Lightning City Stakes $100,000
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The Manatee Stakes $50,000 Guarante
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The Minaret $50,000 Guaranteed Fill
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The Pasco Stakes $100,000 Guarantee
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The Pelican $100,000 Guaranteed 4-Y
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The Sam F. Davis Stakes $250,000 Gu
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The Sandpiper $100,000 Guaranteed F
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Tampa Bay Stakes Grade III $150,000
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Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby $350
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Stakes Histories Turf Dash $100,000
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Stakes Histories Wayward Lass Stake
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Stakes Histories Discontinued Stake
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Stakes Histories Discontinued Stake
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The Diamond Derby Discontinued $75,