Eric J. Guillot

2009 Record: (246-44-34-22)

2009 Earnings: $1,796,007

2009 Win %: 17% In-The-Money %: 40%

Born: Jan. 3, 1962, in New Iberia, La.
Residence: Hermosa Beach, Calif.
Family: sons, Rhett, Carter, and Eric Jr.
Racing Background: Guillot grew up near where retired Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye also was raised. Had horses since he was five, graduating from ponies to show horses, where he showed in everything from reining to halter events ... Owned Quarter Horses and started training Quarter Horse racehorses as a teenager with his older brother.
Racing Career: Took out his trainer's license in 1987 and trained on the California fair ... Decided to move to the Los Angeles area to join the major Thoroughbred racing circuit and worked as an assistant to Mike Orman before going out on his own again. Trained Jens L. List Jr.'s Slew the Surgeon to win the 1992 Triple Bend Handicap G3 at Hollywood Park after nursing the former claimer back to form after a bowed tendon ... Private trainer for the List family's Double Bar S Ranch in Moreno Valley, Calif. ... After List's death and when Double Bar S transitioned out of the Thoroughbred business to Quarter Horse and Paint racehorses in 1998, Guillot bought two 2-year-old fillies, A Slew Streak and Show Me the Stage, both by Slew the Surgeon, and moved back to Louisiana ... Show Me the Stage won 13 stakes and earned $679,053 ... Guillot moved his base of operations back California in 2006 ... Partnered with owner Mike Moreno in forming Southern Equine in 1998. They currently have 60 horses in training, with 40 in California and 20 in Louisania. “We have about 250 head total, counting the mares, weanlings and yearlings,” he said.
Breeding/Racing Operation: Guillot, who has trained the winners of nearly $6 million in his career, is in the midst of a very good year now, with over $1.5 million earned this year, through Oct. 26, 2009 ... He scored the first G1 victory of his career on Valentine's Day 2009, winning the Santa Maria Handicap with Santa Teresita at Santa Anita ... He added another one in September, the Darley Debutante Stakes at Del Mar with Mi Sueno ... Another top horse for Southern Equine in recent years has been 2007 Breeders' Cup Juvenile ninth-place finisher Salute the Sarge, who cost $300,000 at the Barrett's March 2-year-old select sale ... As a 2-year-old, Salute the Sarge won or placed in four graded stakes and set a Hollywood Park track-record of :58.29 for five furlongs in his debut ... He stood his first season at stud in 2009 at John T.L. Jones III's Walmac Farm near Lexington, and has shuttled to Brazil to stand the winter season ... Guillot and Moreno also have been extremely active at mixed sales, purchasing a number of high-priced broodmares to form a group of foundation mares ... They also purchased the former Parrish Hill Farm near Lexington to base their breeding operation, and plan to move the mares onto the property later in 2009. The headliner of the group is Better Than Honour, the dam of back-to-back Belmont Stakes (G1) winners Jazil and champion Rags to Riches, who set a world Thoroughbred auction record for a broodmare or broodmare prospect Nov. 2, 2008 when her price soared to $14 million during the Fasig-Tipton November select mixed sale in Lexington. Both of the Southern Equine G1 winners this year, Santa Teresita and Mi Sueno, have been retired and will become part of the broodmare band. For more info, also see Southern Equine Stables.