Healing Stevens Energized by Newest Challenge

If the famous quotation, "Pain makes cowards of us all," holds any grain of truth, I should be writing this column curled up in a fetal position in a corner of the room, seeing as my left hand is swaddled and throbbing less than 24 hours after surgery to remove a small bone called the trapezium, whose arthritic degeneration was causing no end of complaints to my thumb and wrist. Wah wah wah. The bone, barely 20 millimeters in width, was hardly worth saving as a souvenir, although visions of Meyer Wolfsheim, Jay Gatsby's shady pal, and his human molar cuff links did come to mind. As for discomfort, I have at my disposal a handy dose of oxycodone. Still, I thought it best to go cold turkey for the duration of this writing, otherwise thoughts might go wandering off in strange directions and faithful editors driven to distraction. (Why, though, are all the best letters on the left side of the keyboard?) It is an undeniable fact that misery, even at my amateur status, loves company, which is why a call was made to Gary Stevens, the retired Hall of Famer who made news recently with the announcement that he would be representing fellow Famer Mike Smith at the upcoming Del Mar meet. The seaside season begins July 17. Like any professional Thoroughbred jockey who is trying hard, Stevens has had more than his share of serious repairs. My hospital visits to his bedside go back to that October day in 1985 when a horse came out from under him during a workout at Santa Anita Park. He bounced along for a few strides, hung up in an iron, and sustained considerable damage to a shoulder and a knee. He was 22. There was the time at Del Mar when his horse ducked into a temporary PVC rail on the grass course and a section of the pipe speared him between the eyes. He lost countless months to knees, shoulders, and collarbones and, on two occasions, tried riding in Europe thinking the turf would be easier on his joints. It was, but the wicked variety of track elevations was anything but forgiving. Of course, no one can forget the carnage of the 2003 Arlington Million Stakes (G1T) in which Gary's mount Storming Home appeared on his way to victory when he shied from something to the inside and left Stevens dangling in midair, only to be trampled by a following horse after hitting the ground. Among his assorted injuries that day was a collapsed lung. That first banged up knee finally had to be replaced, which ranked as the rider's most agonizing experience—until last April. That is when Stevens underwent nine hours of spinal surgery on a collection of vertebrae above and below C3 through C6, which had been fused in an earlier operation. "The pain of that first operation was pretty moderate, mostly because they were able to go through the front," Stevens said this week from his home in Hot Springs, Ark. "I was warned, though, that the vertebrae below would eventually deteriorate. I was fine for quite a while, then I started having balance issues. My doctor thought it might have been from all my head injuries. But believe it or not, my scans came back perfect." This is where the mordant humor of the all jockeys rises to the occasion, although Stevens has yet to forgive the pain of his most recent procedure, which required entry through the muscle complex of his back and neck to relieve increasing pressure on the spinal cord. "The nerves were going crazy," he said. "The effect on my hands and legs kept getting worse and worse." Considering all this, he was kind to consider me and my sad little thumb as fellow travelers in postoperative pain. But compared to Gary's world of hurt, I had a hangnail. That is why it will be so fascinating to see what magic a Smith-Stevens collaboration can bring this summer at Del Mar. Pals forever, they have provided some of racing's greatest moments, including their Beholder-Songbird classic in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). Stevens bowed out as a rider in November 2018 with 5,187 North American wins, then tried training and broadcasting. Since he was cut from the New York Racing Association broadcast team the week before Christmas 2023, Stevens has represented a series of jockeys in the Midwest, with modest success. As for Smith, who turns 60 in August, he has been ably represented for the past two decades by Brad Pegram, with whom he enjoyed Triple Crown success with Justify and a great run with champions Songbird, Arrogate, and Shared Belief. He made headlines earlier this year aboard So Happy, winner of the Santa Anita Derby (G1). Pegram also books mounts for Flavien Prat, the New York-based winner of Eclipse Awards in 2024 and 2025, and therefore spends his time in the East, while Smith lives in California. "Brad told Mike he wasn't doing him justice, that he needed boots on the ground out West," Stevens said. "Agents today can go two or three weeks between visits to the tracks where they've got jocks. But not Saratoga or Del Mar. Those are so competitive, you've got to be there to do any good. Owners want to see you. Trainers want to see you. When Mike suggested me, Brad's reaction was, 'Good catch if you can get him.'" Smith reached out after a memorial service last month for a mutual friend. Stevens, still in the throes of recovery from surgery, gave it a couple days of thought before jumping. "I'd been really feeling sorry for myself," Stevens said. "Probably not doing all that I could to get healthy again. After talking with him for a couple minutes a light went on. Mike said he wanted to ride more, he's still got it, and he doesn't just want to sit around and just ride those big stakes horses." Pegram turned over the first Del Mar condition book to Stevens, which includes a call for Smith in the opening-day Oceanside Handicap. Now that word has gotten around about the Hall of Fame duo, Stevens has been getting feelers from far and wide, though his immediate concentration will be on the Del Mar meet. "There's been a spring in my step ever since I said yes to Mike," Stevens said. "I'll need a golf cart to get around the Del Mar backstretch, but Vince has already taken care of that for me." That would be Vince DeGregory, the 93-year-old dean of America's legendary agents. "He said he'd have one parked at the racing office for me," Gary added. Sounds good. And by then my pathetic thumb will feel good enough to hitch a ride.