Gary Stevens

ARCADIA, Calif. - This being California and this being the Breeders' Cup, it's appropriate that stars are prominent. And the most prominent star in this Hollywood racing firmament is a jockey. Gary Stevens, a Hall of Fame jockey, played the role of George Woolf, a steely old-time rider, in the movie Seabiscuit. In that world, Stevens the actor proved a natural on the big screen with his booming confidence, keen intelligence and movie-star looks. In the real world, Stevens the jockey thought he was going to die two months ago in a freakish spill at Arlington Park.

After failing in the Kentucky Derby to fulfill lofty promise, Point Given redeemed himself yesterday in the Preakness by scoring a decisive victory with a cruel twist. Point Given's triumph at Pimlico deprived racing of any chance for a Triple Crown winner - for the 23rd year in a row. Monarchos, who prevailed in the Kentucky Derby, ran sluggishly in the Preakness and finished sixth.Shifting tactics after a disappointing Derby, jockey Gary Stevens allowed Point Given to relax early at the back of the pack and then accelerate steadily around horses.

Gary Stevens went to a lot of trouble to ride in the Preakness yesterday, flying in from France just to take the mount on Rock Hard Ten. He obviously thought something special might happen, and it did, but Stevens could only watch as Smarty Jones pulled away in the stretch at Pimlico Race Course to win by almost a dozen lengths. Stevens, a two-time Preakness winner, finished second on Rock Hard Ten and said that made his trip worthwhile. But what really made his day, he said, was the chance to see Smarty Jones in action.

NEW YORK -- Having won three straight allowances with increasing ease, Royal Mountain Inn was a prospect, but only a prospect. The roan gelding had it all going for him, except for that one all-important test for class. They've got to beat good horses. Then you know.Yesterday at Belmont, Royal Mountain Inn burst through the last barrier. In his stakes debut, he again won impressively, cruising to a three-length victory under Julie Krone in the $119,600 Red Smith Handicap. It appears that this horse is going to be a major factor in the turf division.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The first horse's name you will hear during the call of the Kentucky Derby tomorrow probably will be Storm Tower.But it is just about the worst-case scenario that could have happened to the Maryland-based colt if he is going to have a chance to win the 10-furlong race.A field of 19 3-year-olds was entered yesterday for the 119th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Track oddsmaker Mike Battaglia installed Prairie Bayou, the only horse in the field to score recent back-to-back stakes victories, in the Jim Beam and Blue Grass stakes, as the 5-2 favorite.

Eric Blind screamed out the names yesterday, calling for Donny and Shaver and Gary and Scott and 10 other men in mud-caked boots and tan pants and white windbreakers who scrambled in front of the horses as the big crowd poured noise into this one corner of the track.It was the 10th race. A perfect day in the starting gate at Pimlico.Blind, the head starter, a man who grew up following his father on a racing circuit from New Orleans to Chicago, was going over the program, reminding himself that Big Sur could get jittery in the start, and that Careful Gesture would just as soon kick a man as fly out of the gate.

Gary Stevens became the oldest jockey to win the Preakness on Saturday, and the 50-year-old Hall of Famer has Clark Masterson to thank. Masterson, a personal trainer based in Bellevue, Wash., helped the 50-year-old jockey lose 25 pounds and nearly 8 percent body fat during two months of workouts last year. It allowed Stevens to come out of retirement after seven years and resume a riding career that produced eight Triple Crown victories and nearly 5,000 other victories.Running in his 17th Preakness, Stevens rode Oxbow to his third win. Stevens also won the race in 1997 (aboard Silver Charm)

Nearly a quarter century ago, Gary Stevens was an up-and-coming jockey in Southern California, hoping to make his mark on the sport, put a lot of money in the bank and move on to something else as quickly as possible. A conversation he had with one of horse racing's iconic riders still resonates with Stevens as he gets ready to ride Oxbow in Saturday's 138th Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course . Given where Stevens has been - including retirement for seven years - it seems almost humorous.

This was for every guy who ever had a mid-life crisis and tried to do something nobody thought could be done. Fifty-year-old Jockey Gary Stevens took Oxbow to the front early and never looked back on the way to an upset victory in the 138th Preakness Stakes that was truly one for the ageless. Oxbow was a 15-1 shot when he left the gate, and he wasn't the one beating the longest odds at Old Hilltop on Saturday. Stevens became the first grandfather ever to win a Triple Crown race, and he did it against a Kentucky Derby winner - Orb - that was considered almost unassailable.

With nearly every eye at Pimlico fixated on either the uncatchable leader, Oxbow, or the Kentucky Derby winner and heavy betting favorite, Orb, Itsmyluckyday cruised under the radar to earn a little bit of redemption in Saturday's Preakness. After failing to challenge Orb on the muddy track at Churchill Downs two weeks ago and finishing near the back of the pack, Itsmyluckyday finished in second place in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. "We did run our race, but we just weren't lucky enough to win," trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. said.