The global pandemic year of 2020 made a lot of people take stock of their position in the world. It happened for the jockey Reylu Gutierrez, but not just because of COVID-19. Gutierrez was part of the tough Saratoga jockey colony during the 2020 racing season and came out of the meet with one winner from 84 mounts. A native of upstate New York, Gutierrez went home to Rochester and hung his tack at Finger Lakes, where his father, Luis, is a veteran trainer. Gutierrez, now 26, was an Eclipse Award finalist in 2018, his first full season riding, when he won 108 races as an apprentice. Though he lost his bug in March 2019, Gutierrez still managed to win 109 races that year, and during the 2019-20 winter meeting at Aqueduct he held his own, winning 24. :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. Despite his father’s occupation, Gutierrez wasn’t a typical racetrack kid. He earned a college degree before deciding to try and become a jockey, and by the time he began riding professionally, Gutierrez was old by bug-boy standards. A natural lightweight (he generally tacks 116 pounds) but strong and smart, Gutierrez had a lot going for him, but his post-apprentice period turned into a slog. He gave Florida a shot, rode some in the Mid-Atlantic, but after that grim Saratoga summer, how and where to push on became a pressing concern. “I was kind of cooked,” Gutierrez said in a phone interview this week. “I was like, ‘What do I do now?’ ” That was when the jockey agent Jose Santos Jr., son of the Hall of Fame jockey, contacted Gutierrez, asking to take his book and for Gutierrez to ride at Sam Houston in Texas. “I’d only been on the East Coast,” Gutierrez said. “I met that with some hesitation.” Gutierrez agreed to let Santos represent him, but instead of Texas tried his hand at Turfway Park. He went 0 for 39 there during December 2020, went back to New York and got his affairs in order, and made the 23-hour drive to Houston, his first time in Texas. Gutierrez won 31 races during the Sam Houston meeting. More importantly, he found his way again. Steve Asmussen put him on some horses, and when Gutierrez went to the Lone Star Park meeting this past spring, he won 45 and began riding first call for trainer Bret Calhoun. That led to successful runs at Colonial Downs, a seven-win run at the tough November meeting at Churchill Downs, and his first winter at Fair Grounds, where Gutierrez has shone even brighter. Gutierrez rode seven winners at Fair Grounds over Sunday and Monday, five in stakes races. Two of the stakes came with Asmussen-trained horses, Halo Again in the Diliberto Memorial and Chattalot in the Sugar Bowl, and two for Calhoun in 3-year-old turf stakes Dec. 27. Gutierrez also won the Tenacious Stakes on Chess Chief for trainer Dallas Stewart. “He’s an educated guy,” Calhoun said. “He studies hard, he works hard, and really pays attention. He’s small, too, and has no weight issues.” :: Get Daily Racing Form Past Performances – the exclusive home of Beyer Speed Figures.  Through racing on Dec. 30, Gutierrez was 18 for 76 (with a $4.10 return on investment), second in the Fair Grounds standings behind Colby Hernandez, who was 21 for 121. Gutierrez’s aggressive style has played well on racing surfaces, turf and dirt, that have been kind to front-runners during December. “Being a new rider at a track, you never expect that, but hopefully we can keep it going,” Gutierrez said. Gutierrez plans to buy a house in Louisville. He’ll ride regularly in Kentucky for most of the year and can base at Fair Grounds or Oaklawn in the winter, a stable circuit for a jockey who wondered if he’d ever find one. “This is not expected, but somehow we’ve gotten here,” he said. “I’d tell younger riders, ‘Please don’t follow my path.’ ”