Gary Stevens © Del Mar Thoroughbred Club

STEVENS’ RETIREMENT TO BE MARKED BY SATURDAY CEREMONY HERE

Gary Stevens, who made his mark as one of America’s top riders of all time during a 32-year Hall of Fame career, hung up his tack for good this week following a back injury he suffered during a pre-race warmup at Del Mar last Saturday.

The 55-year-old native of Caldwell, Idaho, won 5,187 races between 1979 and 2018 despite twice “retiring” – once for seven years – and going through a series of serious injuries and surgeries. His purse earnings totaled $258,213,868, ninth best among all jockeys. He won nearly 500 graded stakes, mostly in the United States but also in Canada, Europe, Dubai, Japan and Hong Kong. He won even 100 stakes at Del Mar, third-best on the track’s ledger.

Stakes win No. 100 here came last September 2 aboard King of Speed in the Del Mar Juvenile Turf.

On the occasion of No. 100, Stevens remembered stakes win No. 1, when, at age 22, he rode Tsunami Slew to victory in the 1985 Eddie Read Handicap for trainer Ed Gregson.

“Tsunami Slew would get really nervous and wash out, but I got along really good with the horse in the mornings,” Stevens said. “I warmed him up before the race and he started to get a little bit nervous so I walked him over to the outside fence, where there was a hedge in those days. He stuck his head in there and started eating the leaves.

“I just let him, but I was thinking Eddie Gregson is probably wondering what the hell I’m doing right now and I hope these things aren’t poisonous.

“He chilled out and walked to the gate and we went wire to wire. I remember the race like it was yesterday. He was a cool horse, but he was a little nutso. Sometimes the Seattle Slew came out in him.”

His final victory came last Friday in the eighth race aboard Friendly Steve ($10.40) for trainer Blake Heap. It was achieved wire-to-wire by 6 ¾ lengths.

Del Mar will honor Stevens Saturday with a special ceremony between races.

“We hate to see him retire, but he’s had a brilliant career and he’s always been there for us,” Del Mar Thoroughbred Club CEO Joe Harper said. “He has always shed a good light on our sport.

“As a friend, you hate to see such a career come to an end, but we all respect the decision. And we hope  and anticipate we’ll still have him around, in some capacity, the sport he has served so well.”

The list of Stevens’ racing accomplishments goes on and on.

The Hall of Fame calling came in 1997 and the following year he won an Eclipse Award as the nation’s leading rider; he was the nation’s leading rider by purses in 1990 and 1998; he won three Kentucky Derbies, three Preaknesses and three Belmont Stakes; he won 10 Breeders’ Cup races; he won a record nine Santa Anita Derbies; he won 16 different riding titles at various  race meets, including two at Del Mar; he won 635 races at Del Mar, including three editions of the $1-million Pacific Classic, and he rode scores of champion racehorses with a savvy and competitive fire that is virtually impossible to quantify.

Away from the track, his accomplishments ranged far and wide also. He was voted the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award by his peers in 1996; he played the role of Woolf in the Oscar-nominated movie “Seabiscuit;” he was voted president of the Jockey’s Guild in 1997; he was a racing commentator for NBC and HRTV; he was one of the stars of the HBO series “Luck” in 2012, and he was a well-spoken representative of the racing community hundreds of times on national television over the years.

Stevens and his wife, Angie, have a daughter. He also is the father of two daughters and two sons by an earlier marriage.

Wednesday night, Stevens posted on his Twitter account: “On the eve of Thanksgiving, let me just say how thankful I am to everyone in my life and career that has made it so amazing. No one has more to be thankful for than myself! It’s been a good run, better than I ever could have imagined. Thank you!

BIGGER PICTURE FAVORED IN FRIDAY’S HOLLYWOOD TURF CUP

Bigger Picture, a 7-year-old gelded son of Badge of Silver that trainer Michael Maker shipped in from Kentucky, was tabbed the 5-2 favorite on oddsmaker Russ Hudak’s morning line for Friday’s Grade II $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup.

The 1 ½-mile marathon drew a field of eight.

Bigger Picture has raced eight times in 2018, all in graded stakes at distances of 1 3/8 or 1 ½ miles and recorded one Grade III victory, a second and two third-place results with earnings of $353,000 to boost his career earnings for Three Diamonds Farm to more than $1.3 million.

There are two horses with Hollywood Turf Cup experience. Chicago Style was second, beaten a neck by Manitoulin as the 7-5 favorite last year. Ashleyluvssugar was second as the 9-10 favorite in the 2016 race, beaten 3 ½ lengths by Texas Ryno.

Tyler Baze replaces Gary Stevens aboard Ashleyluvssugar.

The field from the rail: Beach View (Rafael Bejarano, 6-1), Krewe Chief (Evin Roman, 20-1, Bigger Picture (Mike Smith, 5-2), Can’thelpbelieving (Joe Talamo, 8-1), Ashleyluvssugar (Tyler Baze, 9-2), Marckie’s Water (Mario Gutierrez, 12-1), Ya Gotta Wanna (Flavien Prat, 4-1), Chicago Style (Drayden Van Dyke, 3-1).

FULL FIELDS FOR DOUBLE STAKES ON THE MENU FOR SATURDAY

A field of 13 was set for the $100,000 Grade III Jimmy Durante Stakes and 12 for the Grade II $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap as entries closed and post positions drawn Wednesday for Saturday’s nine-race card which includes the stakes double-header.

The Jimmy Durante, which goes as the fifth race, is a mile on the turf for 2-year-old fillies. It attracted multiple entries from Peter Miller, Doug O’Neill and H. Graham Motion. Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Motion’s ship-ins Monette and Pivottina will be joined by fellow traveler Elsa. A Michael Stidham trainee, Elsa has been working at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

The field from the rail: Italia (Mike Smith, 8-1), Lakerball (Mario Gutierrez, 9-2), Elsa (Joe Bravo, 20-1), Monette (Kent Desormeaux, 4-1),  Cedars of Lebanon (Rafael Bejarano, 12-1), Pivottina (Drayden Van Dyke, 7-2), Thriving (Flavien Prat, 8-1), Creative Instinct (Tyler Baze, 15-1), Kookie Gal (Tiago Pereira 20-1), Posh Holly (Geovanni Franco, 8-1), Courteous (Joe Talamo, 15-1), Velvet Queen (Agapito Delgadillo, 15-1) and Discreet Diva (Evin Roman, 30-1).

The Seabiscuit, scheduled as the seventh race, is at 1 1/16 miles on the turf for older horses. Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has entered He Will, a 6-year-old California-bred son of Cyclotron, in a race he came up a nose short of winning with a late charge against Hunt in the 2017 running.

Stidham has shipped Grade III winner Synchrony in from New Orleans and Irish-bred Pincheck, owned by Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Director Jon S. Kelly, is in from the Emerald Isle for a U.S. debut.

The field from the rail: Caribou Club (Joe Talamo, 6-1), Big Score (Geovanni Franco, 6-1), Ann Arbor Eddie (Mario Gutierrez, 8-1), Pincheck (Mike Smith, 5-1), Holiday Stone (Flavien Prat, 12-1), Madame Stripes (Tiago Pereira, 15-1), Synchrony (Joe Bravo, 9-2), Kenjisstorm (Rafael Bejarano, 8-1), Le Ken (Tyler Baze, 20-1), Ohio (Drayden Van Dyke, 8-1), Secretary At War (Ruben Fuentes, 20-1) and He Will (Kent Desormeaux, 8-1).

NEW DAD PRAT HAS FURTHER INCENTIVE IN CLOSE JOCKEY’S RACE

Flavien Prat, the reigning riding champion of fall racing at Del Mar, was introduced to fatherhood late Tuesday night when his wife, Manon Lemaire Prat, gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Elana.

Mother and daughter are doing well, Prat’s agent Derek Lawson said Thursday morning.

Lawson was unable to provide standard details of the baby’s weight and length, but was able, when put in scramble mode Wednesday morning, to provide Prat with a mount for Saturday’s Seabiscuit Handicap when Fly to Mars, who would have been among the favorites, was withdrawn due to injury.

Trainer Peter Miller said that Fly to Mars, a 4-year-old, California-bred Minister’s Wild Cat gelding, had wrenched an ankle. The injury to the Gary Barber colorbearer, who won the California Dreamin’ Stakes and was second in the Grade II Del Mar Mile last summer, will require a month or more layoff, Miller said.

With Fly to Mars out, Prat was booked to ride Holiday Stone for trainer George Weaver.

Drayden Van Dyke won two races on Sunday to move past Geovanni Franco into the top spot in search of a fall title to go with the one achieved at the summer meeting.

As the meeting enters its penultimate week, Van Dyke has eight wins. Franco, who led through the first two weeks, is one behind Van Dyke. With six wins each, Prat and Joe Talamo trail the leader by two while Rafael Bejarano and apprentice Heriberto Figueroa start the week with five wins each.

Peter Miller leads a tight trainers race with five wins, one more than Jerry Hollendorfer and Bob Baffert and two ahead of Richard Baltas.

“TOYS FOR TOTS” A WINNER ONCE AGAIN AT DEL MAR

For the second straight year, Del Mar hosted a “Toys for Tots” motorcycle ride and gift-gathering program as part of the U. S. Marine Corps long-running charity that collects Christmas toys for less-fortunate children. The event at the track last Sunday was deemed “a total success” with more than 1,000 toys collected and over $17,000 in funds raised.

“The response to this special happening at Del Mar has been wonderful,” said Del Mar’s customer service manager Sheryl Kerstiens, who oversaw the event for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club. “Our fans, our horsemen and our staff all opened their hearts to a fine cause and we had great support from the El Cajon Harley Owners Group and service members from the Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard. It was a total success.”

Fans who brought an unwrapped gift Sunday received free admission to the track and the final number on toys reached 1,039.  Additionally, through the giving of cash and checks from all in attendance during the afternoon, a sum of $17,096 also was turned over to the Marines.

The 28-mile “bike” run from El Cajon Harley-Davidson to Del Mar drew approximately 400 riders, who then spent the day at the track and helped raise funds for the event.

“Toys for Tots” is the Marine Corps’ premier community action program and has been called America’s most popular children’s Christmas charity. It was started in Los Angeles in 1947 and has since grown to a point where it now collects and distributes on average 18 million toys for seven million children-in-need annually in 800 communities in the United States and U.S. Territories.

PROCTOR, LADEMAN GUEST ON WEEKEND HANDICAPPING SEMINARS

Sportscaster and handicapper Mel Proctor and horseplayer Joe Lademan will provide the opinions and selections on the upcoming weekend handicapping seminars.

Proctor, former voice of the Baltimore Orioles, will do the honors on Saturday while Lademan will join host Frank Scatoni on the Sunday program.

The seminars are held starting at 11:30 a.m. at the Seaside Terrace near the top of the stretch.

CLOSERS – Congratulations and thanks to the hundreds who turned out in semi-inclement (by San Diego standards) for the 5^th annual Family Fun Run around the track Thursday morning … Congratulations to Drayden Van Dyke, who was voted Jockeys’ Guild Foundation Detox Jockey of the Week for November 12-18. Van Dyke won stakes to start and end the week, the first on Chasing Yesterday in the Desi Arnaz Stakes on Veterans’ Day, November 12 and the second on Solid Wager in Sunday’s $100,000 Cary Grant Stakes.

DEL MAR STATISTICS

 Jockey Standings

(Current Through Sunday, November 18, 2018 Inclusive)

Trainer Standings

(Current Through Sunday, November 18, 2018 Inclusive)

Winning Favorites Report

(Current Through Sunday, November 18, 2018 Inclusive)

Winning favorites -- 25 out of 68 -- 36.76%

Winning favorites on dirt -- 15 out of 42 -- 35.71%

Winning favorites on turf -- 10 out of 26 -- 38.46%

Winning odds-on favorites -- 7 out of 14 -- 50.00%

In-the-Money favorites -- 48 out of 68 -- 70.59%

In-the-Money odds-on favorites -- 11 out of 14 -- 78.57%