NEWS
No `Luck’ needed at HBO series premiere
Posted: Thursday, January 26, 2012 4:34 PM
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, GARY STEVENS, KEITH BRACKPOOL
Courtesy of Larry Stewart
by Larry Stewart
“I’ve been to Hollywood premieres, but none quite like this one,” Racing Hall of Fame jockey and budding actor Gary Stevens said. “This was huge.”
Stevens’ comment summed up the premiere for the new HBO racing series “Luck,” held on Wednesday night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater and followed by an after-party across Hollywood Boulevard in the Roosevelt Hotel.
Calling the event a premiere was a bit of a misnomer because what the more than 1,000 people in attendance were shown was the series’ first episode, which aired on HBO on December 11.
That fact did not, however, seem to curb any enthusiasm. In fact, a number of people at the premiere said they were more impressed with the first episode after seeing it a second time, particularly on a big screen.
In attendance were “Luck” creator David Milch, director Michael Mann, and the entire star-studded cast, headed by Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, and Nick Nolte.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villariagosa, who was instrumental in getting this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championships back to Santa Anita in suburban Arcadia, and California Horse Racing Board Chairman Keith Brackpool also were among the attendees as were Santa Anita Park President George Haines- and Rick Hammerlee, the track’s vice president of racing, who has a speaking part in “Luck.”
Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winning jockey Mike Smith was there with friend Cynthia Naanouh (pronounced Na-new), who tends bar at the Derby Restaurant in Arcadia.
During the after-party, Stevens, who plays a retired jockey in “Luck,” was pulled aside to talk about the series and his acting career.
Stevens, a racing commentator for HRTV and NBC, played the role of George Woolf in the 2003 movie Seabiscuit. He said he has been involved in a few acting projects since but, because of a lack of funding or other factors, nothing significant has worked out.
“Being involved in ‘Luck’ is one of the greatest things to happen to me in my life outside racing,” he said. “Heck, it is one of the great things to happen to me, period.”
During his riding career, Stevens won eight Triple Crown races and eight Breeders’ Cup races. He was aboard a Kentucky Derby (G1) winner three times.
“I think ‘Luck’ is going to do more for horse racing than anything else,” Stevens said. “You couldn’t buy this kind of marketing. This isn’t just a one-shot movie. This is an HBO series, and you can’t get bigger than that.”
There is no official word that the series will be picked up for a second season, but the feeling around the premiere was that it is almost a sure bet that will happen. The first season consists of nine episodes, with much of the filming taking place at Santa Anita.
Well-connected Arcadia horseman Gary Dimkich, who worked as an extra and has already seen all nine episodes.
“People have to give it a chance,” he said. “It’s brilliant; the best thing I’ve ever seen on television.”
The first episode took some criticism from some in the racing industry, particularly for a scene which shows a horse breaking a leg and being euthanized on the track.
“It’s reality,” Stevens said. “What I can’t believe is that anyone would think that was a real horse. That horse was as stuffed as Trigger.”
Another criticism was directed at Stevens’ character, who tries to comfort the jockey whose horse was euthanized.
“You’ll get over it,” Stevens tells the rider. “That’s why they make Jim Beam.”
The mention of alcohol in that situation is bothered some critics.
Stevens said he ad-libbed the first part of the line. Then he pointed at the Daily Racing Form’s Jay Hovdey, one of the writers on the series.
“He wrote the Jim Beam line,” Stevens said.
“No, no,” Hovdey said. “Everything in the first episode was all David Milch.”
Hovdey laughed. Stevens laughed. Gary Dimkich laughed. It all was part of a fun evening.
Larry Stewart is a California-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: ray, hartford, CT on January 27, 2012 at 06:29 PM
instead of luck a more honest version would be called CHEATS and be filmed at aqueduct,ny racing is just unbelievably crooked right now,ive been following this circuit for 30 years and have never seen anything like this,bands of jockeys all working for one jockey,and when the money shows up late its a cinch,nobody rides the other horses,no wonder theres a healthy number of favorites winning they were mostly horses that should be 4 or 5/1 and got hammered late by the counsil,then everybody works together to make it happen.
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