THOROUGHBRED RACING / BILL CHRISTINE : Stevens Accuses Former Adviser of Bilking Funds

An attorney for jockey Gary Stevens charged this week that his client has been bilked out of more than $350,000 by his former financial adviser.

Neil Papiano, who represents Stevens, said the jockey is suing Harvey Cohen, an attorney who raced the stakes-winning Music Merci, for actual and punitive damages over pension and investment plans that disappeared.

“There’s at least $350,000 involved,” Papiano said. “All the money that Gary put up is gone. And I understand that there’s a long list of other people that Cohen owes.”

Stevens, 31, is riding at Hollywood Park. His horses have earned more than $109 million since his career began in Idaho in 1979. Generally, jockeys earn about 10% of what their horses make. Winner of the Kentucky Derby with the filly Winning Colors in 1988, Stevens will be riding Brocco, one of the favorites in this year’s Derby, at Churchill Downs a week from Saturday.

Cohen has been described as a heavy bettor who once cashed a Pick Six ticket in the low six figures. When Music Merci switched trainers last year, going from Armando Lage to Bill Spawr, it was explained that the move was necessitated by a financial disagreement between Lage and Cohen.

Music Merci, who won the 1988 Del Mar Futurity and seven other stakes, earned more than $1.5 million. The 8-year-old gelding ran in two Breeders’ Cup races, finishing fourth in the Juvenile in 1988 and sixth in the Sprint last year.

Papiano said that Cohen’s whereabouts are unknown.

“We’ve been trying to serve him (with the suit),” the attorney said. “So far, we’ve been unsuccessful.”

Dick Crane, Cohen’s attorney, says he does not think the case will go to trial.

“This will be settled,” Crane said. “I don’t know what Neil means about not being able to serve Harvey. Neil’s never called me, and all he has to do is call. We were the ones who brought all this to Neil in the first place.”

In handling the Stevens case, Papiano was reminded of 1992, when he represented Laffit Pincay and Chris McCarron, both Hall of Fame jockeys, who charged that an investment company improperly used their money and deducted commissions that were higher than had been agreed to.

According to testimony in federal court in Los Angeles, Pincay and McCarron invested $1.7 million and $759,000, respectively. A jury awarded the jockeys $4.4 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

“No money’s been paid,” Papiano said this week. “The brothers who ran the company have gone into both personal and business bankruptcy. Property liens have been filed in an attempt to get as much of the award as we can.”

The brothers--Vincent and Robert Andrews--represented other top jockeys, including Angel Cordero, Jorge Velasquez and Bill Shoemaker. From 1969 until 1987, Pincay was represented by either the Andrews brothers or their father. Before the breakup, Pincay once considered putting Vincent Andrews in his will.

“The brothers had complete control of a money machine,” Papiano said. “As long as Pincay and McCarron were riding, the machine spit out the money.”

Cordero, who retired from riding in 1992 to train horses, said that he had considered a lawsuit.

“Those guys were supposed to charge me 4% (of gross earnings) as their share,” Cordero said. “But it turned out to be more like 8%. They didn’t do right by me, but I didn’t have the proof and the records to do anything about it. There was something wrong. They were handling five or six of the top riders in the country, and they couldn’t make anything for any of us.”

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Holy Bull got the most first-place votes, but Brocco is in first place in the latest weekly Kentucky Derby poll conducted by the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Of the turf writers polled, there were five first-place votes for Holy Bull, three for Brocco and two for Strodes Creek. Brocco led on points, picking up seven second-place votes.

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In 1982, after Gato Del Sol ran second in the Blue Grass Stakes, extending his losing streak to seven races, owners Arthur B. Hancock III and Leone Peters considered replacing jockey Eddie Delahoussaye with Bill Shoemaker for the Kentucky Derby. When they called to inquire, Shoemaker said, “What do you need me for? Delahoussaye’s one of the best riders around.”

Delahoussaye stayed on Gato Del Sol, winning the Derby, and Shoemaker finished eighth with Star Gallant. Delahoussaye also won the Derby the next year, with Sunny’s Halo. This year, Hancock and his partners wanted a jockey with more Derby experience than Corey Black to ride Strodes Creek and have hired Delahoussaye.