Gary Stevens keeps hearing that he's made the right decision to ride at Oaklawn Park on a daily basis this year for the first time.
"You seem to have a pep in your step," Stevens said, relaying a message from his 79-year-old father, a horse trainer.
Scott Stevens rode at Oaklawn years ago and told his famous younger brother, "You're going to have the best winter you've ever had."
Not that Gary Stevens' business had dried up in California, where the Idaho-born jockey flourished in a Hall of Fame career that began in 1979. He started the winter/spring meet at Santa Anita Dec. 26 with a victory aboard Giant Expectations for trainer Peter Eurton in the Grade 2 San Antonio Stakes.
The field included 2017 graded winners Accelerate and Collected. Stevens is penciled in to ride Giant Expectations in the $16 million Pegasus World Cup Jan. 27 at Gulfstream Park in Florida.
As something of a new kid on the block and trying to make a good impression, Stevens has five mounts on today's opening nine-race card at Oaklawn. Trainer Greg Burchell gave Stevens the call on Sticksstatelydude, one of the favorites in the featured $125,000 Fifth Season Stakes.
On Tuesday, Stevens worked Sporting Chance for Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas in preparation for the Grade 1 winner's 3-year-old debut during the Oaklawn meeting.
Stevens goes way back with Lukas, winning the Kentucky Derby aboard Winning Colors in 1988 and Thunder Gulch in 1995 and the Preakness with Oxbow in 2013. Stevens' victory with Oxbow came after an eight-year break to pursue acting and sportscasting careers. Stevens had the mount on Beholder for Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella in her 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff triumph over previously undefeated Songbird.
Early in his career, Stevens heeded a request from Lukas to ride a promising 3-year-old at Oaklawn. Tank's Prospect, in the 1985 Arkansas Derby, gave the jockey his first victory in a $500,000 stakes race.
"Wayne Lukas is one of my two surrogate fathers," Stevens said Wednesday night before the annual Oaklawn kickoff banquet in North Little Rock. "The other one," referring to the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg, "we buried the other day."
Other than for Lukas, Stevens has worked horses for veteran Oaklawn trainers Wayne Catalano, Steve Hobby and Ron Moquett and also for Tom Van Berg, who took over his late father's stable.
Stevens and two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O'Neill are two important California shippers for the 57-day Oaklawn meeting. Stevens said in an interview with Daily Racing Form that "the potential is there" for a big Oaklawn season, conceivably leading Stevens, who turns 55 in March, to Keeneland and Churchill Downs.
"But I'm not going to know until we see how things go," Stevens said. "It's important to get off to a good start here, to have a good meet. I would say that if I do have a decent meet that the likelihood of me staying out here on that type of circuit would be highly likely."
Represented at Oaklawn by Jay Fedor, Stevens thanks Hot Springs native Mark Schlesinger, a longtime horse owner, for steering him to the Spa City.
"I just hope my wife and daughters will be happy about moving here," Stevens said.
Stevens listed five "quality" advantages for Oaklawn in his decision to change circuits: "the quality of horses, the quality of horsemen, the quality of (purse) money, the quality of management and the quality style of living."
With Oaklawn offering $75,000 for maiden special weights, among the highest purses in track history, Stevens said, "I love the money."
Sports on 01/12/2018