The Week in Review: Stevens at Peace With His Retirement

Gary Stevens had never been good at retiring. In 1999, he announced that due to serious knee problems, his career was over. By 2000, he was back. He called it quits again in 2005. This one lasted eight years, or until his restlessness once again got the best of him. He returned in 2013 and did so with a flourish, winning the GI Breeders' Cup Classic with Mucho Macho Man (Macho Uno) and the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff with Beholder (Henny Hughes).

So when doctors told him earlier this week that due a spinal cord issue he risked being a quadriplegic if he continued to ride, he had no choice but to once again say goodbye. And this time there will ne no more comebacks.

“The doctor told me, 'You're done. You're not even getting on a merry-go-round,'” Stevens said.

Based on his history and what seemed like a problem letting go of the job he loved and was so good at, you might have expected Stevens to have been pouting since the doctors told him no more or looking for a second opinion from someone who would tell him he had a few good years left. That wasn't the case at all.

For the first time since he won his first race as a 17-year-old at Les Bois Park in his native Idaho, Stevens is at peace with the fact that he will never again ride a racehorse. It's not just that to do so would be extremely dangerous. Unlike with his past retirements, he seems to have come to understand that he had a wonderful career, he's lucky to have come out of it relatively healthy and that this time, the time had come.

But what he's most thankful for is that his decision to return in 2013 gave him one last memorable run. He says it was the best five years of his professional life, and that is among the reasons he has no regrets that his career is finally over.

“Everyone thought I was crazy coming out of retirement [in 2013], and thank God that I did,” he said. “These last five years were the best five years of my career. I finally got a Breeders' Cup Classic, was able to ride Beholder and finished second in the [GI] Kentucky Derby behind a Triple Crown winner in American Pharoah (Pioneerof the Nile) with Firing Line (Line of David). And I won a Classic [the 2013 GI Preakness with Oxbow (Awesome Again)] for Wayne Lukas. In the Classics, it started for me with Winning Colors (Caro {Ire}) and it ended with Wayne with Oxbow.”

For a rider of his credentials, Stevens, 55, was not having a particularly good 2018. He had won just 62 races and not a single Grade I. He was supposed to have five mounts in the Breeders' Cup but wound up with only one after four of his potential mounts got hurt or sick. Nonetheless, he believed he was about to go on a roll.

“Tony (Matos) was my agent and he was getting me rolling,” Stevens said. “I was riding what I wanted to ride and business was picking up. This past weekend looked like it was going to be a huge weekend for me.”

But in the handful of days he has had to contemplate his retirement, Stevens has come to realize that even if he hadn't been hurt, the end was very near.

“It was probably time to call it a day anyway,” he said.

Stevens seems to know what he is going to do next, but wouldn't say exactly what his plans are. Expect an announcement shortly. He said he will look into trying to land more acting roles, but his main focus will be on staying a part of the sport.

“You'll be hearing from Gary Stevens again. I promise,” he said. “I won't be bored.”

Field Size at Aqueduct Remains a Problem

It looks like it's going to be another grim winter at Aqueduct when it comes to filling races. Even with many of the top outfits still in town before their annual pilgrimage to Florida, Aqueduct averaged just 6.94 horses per race for the combined 19 races run on Saturday and Sunday. The GIII Discovery S. had a field of four.

It figures to get only worse. By the middle of winter, hundreds of NYRA horses are in Florida and hundreds more are worn out by long campaigns, and the 2-year-olds and not yet ready to go.

It really isn't NYRA's fault. When it comes to racing, New York State's workmen's compensation fees charged to owners and trainers are the highest in the nation. It's among the reasons NYRA has such a tough time getting out-of-town horsemen to come in for anything other than major stakes race. There is, of course, also the horse shortage that is plaguing the entire industry.

NYRA has cut 18 racing days from its winter schedule over the last three or four years, but don't expect there to be any more cuts. The horsemen don't want to give up any more dates.

“If you cut any more, there's a tipping point,” said Joe Appelbaum, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. “This isn't necessarily about the cost of business but opportunity costs. If people feel there aren't enough chances to run in New York in the winter they may just go some place else.”

Appelbaum also points out that NYRA makes a profit during the winter meet, revenue that is used to prop up other meets. If winter racing were to go, you'd likely see purse cuts at Belmont and Saratoga.

These are all fair points, but how bad do things have to get before something dramatic is done? Let's hope not, but it really seems like we are a year or two away from a steady diet of cards filled with three and four-horse fields.

This is a tough problem, but it's time to start coming up with some serious solutions.

Seabiscuit? Turf Champion?

Okay, I realize there are more important issues to worry about, but it drives me nuts when they gives stakes races names that make no sense. Saturday at Del Mar, they ran the GII Seabiscuit H., a 1 1/16-mile grass race. Prior to moving the race to Del Mar, it was known as the Citation H. It's terrific that Del Mar named a race after Seabiscuit, but he never ran on the grass. For that matter, neither did Citation.

Belmont does the same thing, naming one of its Grade I grass races after Man o'War, who never got near a grass course. There are plenty of dirt races that Del Mar could have named after Seabiscuit. How about, for instance, the GII San Diego H.?

Wrona Shocker

No one from The Stronach Group has yet offered up a plausible answer why announcer Michael Wrona was fired. It's hard to imagine it had anything to do with his race-calling skills as he was quite good and seemed popular with the fans. A replacement will be named as soon as Monday.

Meanwhile, Wrona has a strong resume and will surely land on his feet with an announcing job at a top track.