Shoulder Surgery to Put Stevens Out Up to Six Months

Gary Stevens, one of the country’s top jockeys and runner-up to Jerry Bailey in the 1995 Eclipse voting, is scheduled to undergo surgery on his left shoulder next Wednesday and will be sidelined three to six months, according to his agent, Ron Anderson.

After riding Binthar Dundat in the first race and Consort Miss in the third on Wednesday, Stevens, 33, took off his final two mounts and was seen in the track’s first-aid department, near the jockey’s room.

Late in the afternoon, Stevens informed Hollywood Park officials he is going to have surgery.

“From what I was told, it’s the same type of injury a major league pitcher gets,” said Anderson, who also is the agent for Chris Antley. “It’s a bad rotator cuff tear with ligament damage.

“Gary’s had the same problem with his shoulder for quite some time. It’s been an off-and-on thing, and he’s gritted it out for quite a while. When he called me [Wednesday] after he had taken off [the rest of the day], he said it felt different than it had before.”

Stevens, who picked up his 4,000th victory when Bon Point won the Grand Flotilla on May 22, had knee surgery at the end of last year and sat out the start of the Santa Anita meeting. He recently sat out a week of racing here for personal reasons.

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Rhapsodic overtook Tabled With Saros in the final strides to win Wednesday’s $47,000 feature race at Hollywood Park by a nose.

Rhapsodic, the 11-10 favorite ridden by Corey Nakatani and carrying 116 pounds, covered 5 1/2 furlongs on Hollywood Park’s turf course in 1:02 1/5 and paid $4.20, $2.80 and $2.40.

Alex Solis rode four winners and Nakatani three on Wednesday’s nine-race card.