Stevens Ready to Take the Reins of New Career

Retired jockey Gary Stevens hasn’t ridden into the sunset. He’s staying active in horse racing as a broadcaster.

Stevens makes his debut as a regular analyst for horse racing network TVG this weekend. On Jan. 23, he will be a part of TVG’s coverage of the Eclipse Awards at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. And on Jan. 28, he will be working as an analyst for the Sunshine Millions on NBC.

The Sunshine Millions will serve as sort of an audition for Stevens, although he is an odds-on favorite to sign a long-term deal sometime after the race as the replacement for retired analyst Charlsie Cantey at NBC.

NBC no longer has the Breeders’ Cup or the Belmont but still has the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

It is all working out quite nicely for Stevens, 42. He will work for TVG on weekends, and periodically for NBC, if that deal works out. That means the rest of the time he can pursue what has become his second love to horse racing -- acting.

Stevens got the acting bug, along with lots of acclaim, for his portrayal of jockey George Woolf in the 2003 box-office hit “Seabiscuit.”

He was reached Thursday in Albuquerque, where he was shooting a guest spot for the ABC Family series “Wildlife.” Stevens plays a jockey on the show and hopes it will become a regular role.

Of horse racing and acting, Stevens said, “There are similarities between the two industries. In horse racing, you start out with a 2-year-old colt and everything has to go right to have success. It’s the same with movies. You start with a script and everything has to go right for the movie to be made and distributed.”

In horse racing, a lot went right for Stevens. His mounts earned more than $221 million, which ranks Stevens fifth on the all-time list of earnings for North American jockeys.

He rode three Kentucky Derby winners -- Winning Colors in 1988, Thunder Gulch in ’95 and Silver Charm in ’97.

“Winning the Kentucky Derby for a jockey is like winning an Academy Award for an actor,” he said.

He has done the former, and can dream about the latter. For now, he said he’s excited about his TVG role.

On Saturday, he’ll be in TVG’s Los Angeles studio with Ken Rudulph and Frank Lyons for a “Trackside Live” show at 1 p.m. that will focus on races from Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, La. The featured race is the Risen Star Stakes, which coincidentally Stevens won aboard Scipion last year.

“Gary offers a unique perspective that viewers will really want to hear,” said Tony Allevato, TVG senior vice president and executive producer. “We think he is going to be a superstar on television.”

Saturday is a big race day at Louisiana Downs, and it is also a big day at Santa Anita, where Kentucky Derby future-book favorite Stevie Wonderboy, owned by Merv Griffin, will run in the San Rafael Stakes. HRTV’s coverage of the race, scheduled to go off at 3:16 p.m., can also be seen on ESPN News.