Gary Stevens says it never gets old.
“I love this,” Stevens said of the hustle and bustle on the backside at Churchill Downs in the weeks leading up to the Kentucky Derby.
The Derby hoopla is different for the 50-year-old Stevens, who ended a seven-year retirement earlier this year and will ride Oxbow in Saturday’s Derby, which will mark his first mount in the race since finishing 14th with Noble Causeway in 2005.
Stevens, who has been doing television commentary since he retired, has a chance to win the sport's biggest race for a fourth time a few months after he came out of retirement, lost 19 pounds and had to “show people that I was serious.”
The Hall of Famer can become the second-oldest jockey to win the Derby. Bill Shoemaker won the 1986 Derby aboard Ferdinand at age 54. Stevens will take a shot with 77-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who he teamed with to win the Derby 25 years ago with Winning Colors and also in 1995 with Thunder Gulch.
“Here I am,” Stevens said with a chuckle. “I didn’t just want to be here, riding, with an also-ran. I would rather be up in the (TV) booth than that, but I’m not.
“We made it here and we have a big chance and that’s all I can ask for.”
Oxbow, who is 30-1 on the morning line and will leave from post two, has been training well at the Downs and was second in the Rebel Stakes two starts back. He finished fifth in the Arkansas Derby the first time Stevens rode him.
“I think he’s in the zone and I feel really comfortable with him,” Lukas said of Stevens. "Mentally and attitude-wise, he’s better than I have ever seen him and I think he looks as good as I have ever seen him. I like my jockey.”
Stevens had to fight to get back to this point.
One of the top jockeys during his generation, Stevens started racing in 1979, has won more than 4,900 career races and competed in the Derby 18 times.
Stevens has won eight Triple Crown races and more than $222 million in earnings.
“He was very, very good,” Lukas said, noting he still sees a lot of the same qualities in Stevens now that he’s returned to the track. “He looks great and feels great.”
But Stevens decided to give it up in 2005. He says injuries were such that he didn’t “feel like fans were getting the old Gary Stevens.”
“I was burned out and hurting,” Stevens said. “The fire was gone and that’s why I had to get away. I just wasn’t happy with the way I was performing.”
So, Stevens announced his retirement in November of 2005 at Churchill Downs. He went into television as an analyst and did some acting, appearing in the movie “Seabiscuit” and the HBO Series “Luck.”
Several times in recent years, Stevens hinted at making a comeback but didn’t put any plans in place until last fall. He told Lukas — and several others — around the time of the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita.
“I told him that we would see how he was doing and to call me the first of the year,” Lukas recalled. “He seemed pretty serious about coming back.”
Stevens hired a personal trainer, dietitian and life coach to try and help his get back in shape — mentally and physically. He weighed as much as 134 pounds during his retirement and noted, “weight had been a problem” before he retired.
“It was a challenge,” he said. “I knew what it was going to be like coming back, I had come back from injuries before. I knew how hard that was. But being off for seven years, I knew exactly what that was going to take.
“But I always loved challenges.”
Stevens weighs 116 pounds now, which is “lighter than I have been since I was probably 20 years old,” and said he feels great.
He rode his comeback race on Jan. 6 and picked up his first win six days later. He won a stakes race in February.
“It wasn’t easy,” Stevens says. “But I was determined to do it. I’ve answered it a million times, why, people always ask. I guess because I could.
“I didn’t know if I would be here at the Kentucky Derby or not. But I sure didn’t want to be 70 years old and look back and say, ‘Man, I could have come back’.”
Stevens said he had “several options” heading into the weeks leading up to the Derby but stuck with Oxbow. He’s hoping teaming with Lukas might help him smell the roses one more time during his career.
“It would be pretty special,” Stevens said. “The first one was sweet, the second was better than the first one and the third one was the best of them all.
“With each one, it gets better. So, I know it would be unbelievable.”
Jody Demling writes for CardinalAuthority.com on the Scout network.
