Scott Stevens

Junior Alvarado, Julien Leparoux, Deshawn Parker, Gerard Melancon and Scott Stevens are finalists for the 2021 Mike Venezia Memorial Award, the New York Racing Association announced Sunday. Created in 1989, the Mike Venezia Memorial Award is awarded to a jockey who displays the extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship that personified Venezia, who died as the result of injuries suffered in a spill in 1988. Venezia, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., won more than 2,300 races during his 25-year career. All active jockeys in the continental U.S. are eligible to vote for...

Veteran jockey Scott Stevens, one of only 35 riders in history to win in excess of 5,000 races, has announced his retirement after beining involved in a Feb. 24 spill at Turf Paradise. Stevens, 60, is the older brother of Hall of Fame rider Gary Stevens. "He had an unbelievable career and he is my hero," Gary Stevens wrote on Twitter. Stevens went down in a turf race after another horse came over on him shortly after the start. He broke two vertebrae and his ribs as a result of...