November 5, 2021 
Fausto Gutierrez is a breed apart in the exclusive world of Thoroughbred trainers.
For one thing, he’s the son of a lawyer whose family had no connection to the racing world. The usual path for an aspiring horseman would have been starting as a hot walker, then groom; perhaps an exercise rider, then apprentice jockey if he fit the physical mold (he doesn’t).
Instead, Mexico’s most successful trainer started his Thoroughbred racing career as a Thoroughbred racing writer. His path from writing about the sport to saddling 8-5 favorite Letruska in Saturday’s $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Del Mar, CA more resembles an obstacle-laden steeplechase race than a clear dirt oval.
“We lived in Madrid, Spain when I was very young,” explains the turf writer turned turf trainer. “I remember the Zarzuela Hippodrome nearby. They raced horses there and sometimes we would go.”
The family would later move to Mexico City. There, Gutierrez caught the Thoroughbred racing bug as a fan at Mexico’s only Thoroughbred racetrack, the Hippodrome of the Americas.
“This is a sport that is different from other sports because the horses are athletes, too,” reasons Gutierrez. “That got my attention.”
Though a media major for practical career reasons, horses remained a passion. Life events would keep nudging him in that direction.
“On my first day at university, I carried a book for a horse sale,” he recalls. “One of my professors noticed it. He had a horse for sale with a partner that weekend. He invited me to go with him.”
There, Gutierrez met a trainer who would become a friend. They would later buy a horse together from a claiming race. The coincidence would change his life.
But not quite yet.
He went on to major in communications in college, thinking his future would be in television or advertising, perhaps even law. It seemed his attention would always remain as a fan. But a post-graduate phone call from a college friend would put him literally on the track.
“My friend worked for the Periodico Reforma, an important newspaper in Mexico. He knew I liked horses. So, one day he calls me and says he needed someone to write about horses. ‘Why not?’ I thought.”
Working for one of Mexico’s most prominent newspapers led to his meeting many prominent people. Gutierrez met many owners who recognized his passion for their sport and befriended him.
He got a side hustle working for an owner with a few horses. That led to his getting a training license.
The side hustle went by the wayside in 1996 when the unstable political situation in Mexico resulted in the abrupt closure of the track where Gutierrez was working. It would remain shuttered for several years. Owners had to move their horses and some turned to Gutierrez for help. He, in turn, moved to Texas with a small string of 24 runners.
“We raced at Lone Star and Sam Houston until 1999,” he explains. “The track in Mexico reopened and I returned.”
Several years, several horses, several winners and several prominent meetings later, Gutierrez met German Larrea Mota-Velasco, the CEO of a large mining corporation, in 2001. Mota-Velasco wanted to invest in racehorses at the Keeneland sale and asked Gutierrez to go along: “We’ve been together ever since.”
The owner established St. George Stable, invested in horses in a big way and gave them all to Gutierrez for training. The pair became the dominant force in Mexican racing.
Still, Mexico has little prominence in racing and Gutierrez’s success went largely unknown, even after Mota-Velasco decided to open a stable in the United States and the trainer moved with his family to Florida in 2020.
Gutierrez would finally go from writing turf news to headlining turf news this year on April 16 when equally little-known Letruska would shock the racing world by getting a nose over the finish line in front of reigning Eclipse Award-winning Older Female Monomoy Girl.
The 2019 Mexican Horse of the Year would go on to win the Ogden Phipps at Belmont, the Personal Ensign at Saratoga, the Spinster at Keeneland—all G1s—as well as the G2 Fleur De Lis at Churchill Downs and the G3 Houston Ladies Classic. The only misstep of the year so far for the five-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Super Saver (out of Magic Appeal by Successful Appeal) was a second-place finish in the G2 Azeri Stakes at Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park.
Like her trainer, she is no longer unknown. She is a winner in 17 of her 22 races and a possible Eclipse Award Horse of the Year should the hooves fall her way on Saturday.
For the 54-year-old Gutierrez, the path from the pen to the paddock has been a long, sometimes circuitous one.
“This is what I worked for. This is what I hoped for,” he muses during breakfast on a sunny San Diego day.
“This is like a dream.”
