NEWS
Gary Stevens opens racing stable
Posted: Monday, June 01, 2009 7:10 PM
GARY STEVENS
NTRA photo
by Pete Denk
Racing Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has opened Gary Stevens Racing Stable and is embarking on a career as a trainer.
Based at Santa Anita Park, Stevens, 46, will continue to work as a media commentator for NBC and HRTV.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and things finally fell into place,” Stevens said. “We’re starting out with several nice horses and looking forward to slowly building up the stable.”
Stevens’s son, T.C. Stevens, will assist his father. The younger Stevens worked for Ashford Stud for two years and gained experience with other California and Florida-based operations before joining his father’s fledgling team.
“I am the trainer, and my son, T.C., is the assistant,” Stevens said Monday afternoon from his Santa Anita barn. “I’m here right now. I’ve got a rake in my hand and we just had a load of sand delivered.
“We’re taking baby steps right now. I’ve got the barn set up the way I had envisioned it. I’m not cutting any corners. I want to do a first class job, and I want to be hands on. I’m very happy with HRTV and NBC, and that’s one of the reasons my son is my assistant—because I’ll still do my other job and be able stay on top of the game.”
Stevens said he will have four horses initially and would not want to train more than 25 at a time. His first few horses include an unraced two-year-old daughter of freshman sire Leroidesanimaux (Brz) named Brazilian Charm. Stevens purchased the filly out of Arm Charm, by Gold Fever, for $20,000 at the 2009 Barretts May sale of two-year-olds in training.
“One of the great things about the clients I’ve got now is they’re my parents, and my wife, and a couple of close friends in Kentucky,” Stevens said. “It’s a family business. My father, Ron, is a trainer, my brother Scott, is a jockey, and my older brother Craig is a breeder. It was only natural for T.C. to follow in those footsteps as well.”
Stevens retired from riding on November 26, 2005. He has 5,005 career wins and purse earnings of $237,644,302. He won eight Triple Crown races, eight Breeders’ Cup races, and a record nine editions of the Santa Anita Derby (G1).
Stevens won the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Jockey in 1998 and the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in ’96. He was an assistant to Alex Hassinger in 1999-‘00 when Hassinger trained for Prince Ahmed bin Salman's The Thoroughbred Corp.
“I know training is a 24-hour, 7-day a week, 52-week a year job,” Stevens said. “It probably brings more bad news than good news. As a jock when you hung your boots up at the end of the night, you can go home and get some sleep. But the trainer has to worry about cooling them out and what they’ll do the next morning.”
One of Stevens’ clients is Nick Mestrendrea, co-owner of 2007 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Maryfield. They met on the set of Seabiscuit, the Academy Award-nominated movie in which Stevens had a role. Mestrendrea, 38, of Burbank, California, owns a catering service for the entertainment industry.
“Gary brought me into the business shortly thereafter and I haven’t looked back,” Mestrendrea said. “I am thrilled to be on board with him as an owner in his new racing stable and wish him nothing but the best in his new endeavor.”
Pete Denk is sales editor of Thoroughbred Times
