It would be similar to Magic Johnson handling LeBron James, or Clint Eastwood booking roles for Tom Cruise, or Paul McCartney lining up gigs for Bruce Springsteen.
Retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has been hired by active Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith to be his agent this summer at Del Mar. The collaboration is the talk of the Del Mar backside as the pair jockey for position (pun intended) in the competitive Del Mar jockey colony. A task made much tougher this year with the addition of such talented riders as Joel Rosario, Julien Leparoux and Emisael Jaramillo.
Stevens last rode a race in 2018. During his illustrious career, he won 5,187 races and compiled earnings exceeding $258 million. He won the Eclipse Award for top jockey in 1998, one year after he was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. By then he had won three Kentucky Derbies, including his victory aboard Silver Charm in 1997. He won 11 Breeders' Cup races.
Smith's numbers and accomplishments are just as impressive. 5,807 wins and earnings currently over $358 million. He's won two Eclipse Awards for top jock and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. Smith has won two Kentucky Derbies and holds the record for the most Breeders' Cup wins with 27.
Healing Stevens Energized by Newest Challenge
You would think these two would be archrivals, enemies in the sporting kind of way. But instead, they are the best of friends, and this arrangement could not have come at a better time for Stevens.
"We're in contact every day via text," Stevens claims. "Just checking in on each other and such. About a month and a half ago I was sitting at home in Hot Springs, pretty bored. I was recovering from spinal surgery. The full fusion of my neck. It was a serious operation that lasted nine hours.
"I was not in a good place mentally when Mike called me," Stevens continues. "He said, 'What about you coming out here and being my agent?'"
Stevens was hesitant at first and asked for 48 hours to think it over.
"I told Mike, 'I don't think I'm really capable right now," Steven remembers. "I'm not getting around great. I'm still rehabilitating, and it's a long process. That was on a Monday. When I called him back Wednesday, I still didn't know what I was going to tell him. But during our conversation, a light turned on, and it said, 'You need to go.' So, I left on Tuesday morning and drove out to Del Mar and was here by Thursday morning."
It's been a while since Smith had to find a new agent. Brad Pegram had been his agent for 24 years.
"He's an absolutely super-agent," Smith states. "A wonderful friend of mine. He's been blessed to pick up (Flavien) Prat a while back. They've just gotten so busy together."
With Pegram staying back at Saratoga, Smith had to find a replacement. Pegram's father Jim came out and helped, but Jim wasn't able to make it out for the Del Mar meet. Smith and Pegram talked it over and decided Smith would get somebody to come out this summer, and then they would go from there.
"Right away I thought of Gary," Smith says. "I just saw him a couple of months back, and I knew he had just had this surgery done. He kind of needed to come out and do some therapy, so what's a better way to come out and move around, see some people and help me out."
Stevens and Smith have been the closest of friends for so long now they know each other's habits and tendencies. They're not quite to the point where they can finish each other's sentences, but they're close.
"We rode so much with each other for so long at the highest level," Stevens says. "Some of the biggest races in the country and in the world. When we were riding, they were high-stakes chess matches. We knew each other's styles. I knew basically what Mike was thinking all the time, what moves he was going to make, and he knew me the same way. We would try to change things up every once in a while. It was a lot of fun."
"We're very close," Smith adds. "He's more like a big brother to me. We've had a lot of fun racing against each other. When I was back east, he would come out and stay with me, and when I would come out California way, I would stay with him until I moved my tack out here permanently."
That was initially in 2001. Smith returned to Kentucky in 2005 and then rode on the East Coast in 2006 before returning to Southern California full-time in 2007. Stevens spent most of his career out West, starting at Les Bois Park in Boise, Idaho in 1979, progressing over to Longacres in Washington and Portland Meadows in Oregon in 1980. He gave Hollywood Park and Santa Anita a try that year but returned to the Pacific Northwest to ride for the next couple of years. In 1985, he took the leap of faith and moved his tack south.
"As a jockey you don't have a coach or anybody who's there to help you," Stevens notes. "My big brother Scott was always my biggest booster and biggest critic. He'd always call me out if there was something I could have done better.
"That's how Mike and I have become," he continues. "He would come back after a race and ask me if there was anything different he could have done or ask, 'Am I reading this race right? How do you think this race is going to set up?'"
Even the biggest and most noted race between these two Hall of Fame jockeys ended in comradery and mutual support. It was the Breeders' Cup, November 4, 2016. Beholder, winner of three Eclipse Awards and two Breeders' Cups, was facing off with the hottest 3-year-old filly on the planet. Songbird was undefeated after 11 races going into the $2 million Distaff, and if ever there was a horse race that lived up to its billing, this was it.
"We hit the wire together," says Smith, who was riding Songbird. "He jumped up and celebrated, and I thought to myself, 'this poor guy, he's celebrating, and I beat him. He's going to be so embarrassed.' We were galloping out, and I said, 'Are you sure of that, buddy?' He said, 'I'm pretty sure. And I said, 'I don't know.'
"When we were coming back, we walked back together," Smith continues. "They pop the numbers up, and of course he beat me. But still I said to him, 'You know I beat you,' and he said, 'Well, I guarantee you my bank account is going to say different.'
It was a race for the ages and will go down as one of the best ever.
"I said at the time I wish it was a dead-heat because neither filly deserved to lose," Stevens recalls. "After I had done all of my press conferences and everything, I went into the jocks room with two glasses of champagne. Our lockers were right next to each other, and I handed Mike a glass, and we toasted. We autographed each other's glass and dated it. It was a special moment."
Don't be mistaken. Smith and Stevens were always fierce competitors when they raced against each other. Neither one likes to lose. Hall of Famers seldom do. But even in a race like the Kentucky Derby, if one doesn't have a chance to win, they're rooting for the other.
"When Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby, I was down on the inside on Noble Causeway," Stevens remembers, "and by the eighth pole, my horse had dropped out. We were 20 lengths behind. I started watching the big matrix board and rooting for Mike to win."
Stevens has been working as a jockey agent over the past couple of years at Oaklawn Park near his home.
"I like doing this because it keeps me involved in the game," Steven remarks. "I've never been fortunate enough to have this type of rider. The two best jocks that I've had are Nik Juarez and Jaime Torres, but no Hall of Famers."
One might think handling a rider of Mike Smith's stature would be a daunting task. But Stevens found it to be just the opposite.
"There are less challenges," Stevens notes. "It's nice when people are calling me instead of me calling them."
"He's doing great," Smith adds. "The first race we won was over at Prairie Meadows. We won a stake for Steve Asmussen right off the bat. A real spoiler way to get started. Then we had a really good winner on Saturday for Sean Williams (at Del Mar). It was a nice surprise. The horse ran really well. We had a good week overall for what we rode. They all ran really well. I couldn't be happier."
That winner at Prairie Meadows was on Booth in the $100,000 Iowa Sprint on July 11. Their win opening week at Del Mar was on Native Land in Race 10 on July 18th.
"A $48 winner. That got people's attention," Stevens boasts. "Unfortunately, I had to take him off a winner on Sunday, but these things happen in this game. I had given a commitment away, but otherwise it's going well."
For as long as there have been jockeys, there have been jockey agents around the racetrack. They act as the middleman between the rider and the trainers. They're also a coach and a counselor. A common site on the backside are jockeys with their agents going from barn to barn hoping to drum up business.
"Basically, I'm a bookkeeper," Steven explains. "If I see a horse I want to go after, I may call a trainer, or a trainer may call me up and ask me if I'm interested in riding a horse. You may give a partial commitment to somebody, and then a better one comes along. Depending on the circumstances, I try to honor every call that I give out. I just try to be as honest as I can. I have a deep respect for everyone I'm dealing with. The same way I rode. I give my all, and that's all you can do."
Smith has full confidence in Stevens' abilities and judgement.
"I leave all the business part to him," Smith notes, "I just do the riding. He's a Hall of Famer, and he knows what to do. Whatever Gary feels is right."
Smith's win is a Stevens' win these days. They've been pounding the pavement on the backside this summer drumming up business, and it could soon pay off.
"I've been working a lot of horses for (Richard) Mandella, Mark Glatt and George Papaprodromou," Smith contends. "Bob (Baffert) reached out and put us on one the other day and said he was going to reach out to us with something else. And we're looking to travel, too. If something comes up at Saratoga or somewhere, we're all for jumping on a plane. We'll see how it goes. We'll go through this summer and figure things out as time goes on."
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