Gary Stevens Retires For Good

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has retired for the third and final time Tuesday after suffering a spinal injury during an incident in a post parade at Del Mar Saturday. The news was first reported by the Daily Racing Form.

“I would have liked to have walked away on my exact terms, but I consider myself very fortunate for the career I've had as a jockey and that I can still walk with the news I got this morning,” Stevens told the TDN when reached by phone Tuesday. “The whiplash has moved C4 forward and it is pressing directly on my spinal cord. I am waiting to hear back on when the surgery will be to relieve the pressure.”

As for future plans, Stevens said, “I've got several irons in the fire. The time was coming near anyway, so it is not like I wasn't thinking about what I was going to be doing. I have a few things that I am excited about.”

Stevens scored his first victory at his home track of Les Bois Park in Idaho in 1980 and now owns a total of 5,187 wins, with 11 of those coming in Breeders' Cup races and nine in Triple Crown events. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997, the 55-year-old won his first Classic aboard Hall of Fame filly Winning Colors in the 1988 GI Kentucky Derby (video) and his most recent Triple Crown victory came shortly after his last comeback in the 2013 GI Preakness S. aboard Oxbow, who, like Winning Colors, was trained by D. Wayne Lukas (video).

“Dating back to Winning Colors, Wayne gave me my first Classic win and my last Classic win [with Oxbow], so that is pretty cool,” Stevens said.

The Eclipse-winning pilot also navigated 1995 Derby and GI Belmont S. winner Thunder Gulch for Lukas and took home the roses again in 1997 aboard the Bob Baffert-trained Silver Charm, who also captured that year's Preakness. Rounding out his trio of Preakness winners is fellow Baffert pupil Point Given, who captured the Triple Crown's second jewel, as well as the Belmont, in 2001. Stevens also rode Victory Gallop to an upset of Real Quiet's Triple Crown bid in the 1998 Belmont. Some of the journeyman rider's other memorable mounts include Silverbulletday, Serena's Song, Rock Hard Ten, Indian Charlie, Best Pal, War Chant, Da Hoss, Escena, Macho Uno and Bertrando.

“Gary Stevens galloped my first Thoroughbred for me and rode my first Kentucky Derby winner,” Baffert said. “I came up through the sport alongside him. When I think of my greatest memories in racing, Gary is always right there, front and center. He is a legend in this sport and I am proud to call him my friend.”

Stevens retired for the first time in 1999 with knee issues and briefly worked as a trainer and a jockey agent, but returned to the track a short time later in 2000. He retired again in 2005 to work as an analyst at NBC and was back in the saddle in 2013 after eight years on the sidelines.

During his most recent comeback, Stevens scored several career highs. In addition to winning the 2013 Preakness with Oxbow at odds of 15-1, the rider scored his long-awaited first GI Breeders' Cup Classic victory aboard Mucho Macho Man (video). He was also the regular rider of four-time Eclipse winner and future fellow Hall of Famer Beholder, guiding her to two GI Breeders' Cup Distaff wins, in 2013 and 2016 (video), respectively. Stevens climbed aboard Beholder for the first time in the 2013 Torrey Pines S., which they won, and together they captured a total of 12 races, seven of which were Grade Is, highlighted by her World Championship scores and an 8 1/4-length tour de force in the 2015 GI Pacific Classic (video).

“Throughout my career, Gary and I have had a lot of success and always made a good team, but particularly with Beholder,” said Hall of Fame conditioner Richard Mandella. “They had a real relationship and it was obvious in the performances she gave him. Her previous rider was insistent that she needed to go to the front and we always trained her to sit back and use her speed when we wanted, rather than just letting her run off on the front end. Gary and I, like I said, always understood each other well enough that, when he got on and I asked him to try that, it put her in a new league. I'm very sad to hear that he is retired again.”

Stevens won four graded stakes during the 2018 season, but the aforementioned trio of Oxbow, Mucho Macho Man and Beholder were certainly the highlights of his last stint in the saddle, which also included riding Firing Line to a second place finish behind American Pharoah in the 2015 Derby.

“I wouldn't trade that decision I made to come back [in 2013] for anything, between Mucho Macho Man, Oxbow, Beholder, especially Beholder,” Stevens said. “The Breeders' Cup Classic was the one race that was missing and Mucho Macho Man got that trophy on the pedestal. Beholder was the best I've ever ridden. Everything has a reason for happening. It was a short five years. These past five years went by pretty quickly, I'll tell you that, but they were the best five years I have had in my career.”