Stevens Had to Pick, and He Took Youth

Athletes make mistakes all the time. Tiger Woods takes a three-wood when he should lay up with a four-iron. A batter is guessing fastball, but a hook is on its way. A pitcher tries to get a fastball past a Henry Aaron when the changeup is called for. Brett Favre misses the open man on the 10-yard line and throws it into a crowd of Denver Broncos on the five. Boris Becker double-faults trying to put too much on the serve. And so on.

But nowhere does a mistake come back to haunt the athlete any more than it does the jockey who is called upon to make a choice between two first-rate race horses.

Eddie Arcaro won five Kentucky Derbies. But it should have been six, more than any other rider has won. Because, in 1942, Arcaro had been given the choice by Greentree Stable of riding either of its colts, Shut Out or Devil Diver.

He chose Devil Diver. Shut Out won the race. Devil Diver finished sixth.

The experience so shook up Arcaro that, six years later, when he had the mount on the great Citation, he was plagued by doubts.

Big Cy’s stablemate, Coaltown, had been winning races with better times. “Are you sure I’m on the right horse?” a worried Arcaro demanded of Calumet trainer Ben Jones. “You’re on the right horse,” Jones told him grimly. “Coaltown will never beat Citation.”

He was right. Eddie got his fourth Derby victory as Citation easily put Coaltown away down the stretch, even though it was--for the Derby--a slow time of 2:05 and change. Coaltown could run faster than that in snow. But not when Citation was in the field.

Bill Shoemaker, who won four Kentucky Derbies, could have made it five in 1964, but he opted for the Cal-bred Hill Rise instead of the Canadian horse, Northern Dancer. The mount on Northern Dancer went to Willie Hartack, who won his fourth Derby. (He was later to go on and make it five, thus tying Arcaro).

I bring this up because another great rider, Gary Stevens, had the jockey’s dilemma dropped in his lap for the Santa Anita Handicap this Saturday.

Gary had a chance to ride Silver Charm. Or he had the chance to ride Gentlemen.

Now, this is a little like being asked to choose between Sharon Stone or Michelle Pfeiffer. Like, who cares? Flip a coin.

But only one can win. Silver Charm is only the horse who came within a couple of jumps of winning the Triple Crown last year with Stevens aboard.

So, Silver Charm needs no introduction. But, Gentlemen is an Argentine-bred and was not around for the glamour races of America’s Triple Crown when he was eligible in 1995. He was winning races (five out of six) at the Hipodromo in Buenos Aires at the time, trimming the best the Pampas had to offer. When he got to this country, he beat the best we could throw at him, 10 out of 12.

Stevens was on him for 10 of them.

Gary Stevens is a Hall of Fame rider who has won three Kentucky Derbies, the Preakness and the Belmont and more than 4,000 other races. He moves a horse up a couple of lengths simply by getting on him. Horses seem to run for Gary Stevens the way they used to run for Bill Shoemaker. They like him.

Saturday’s Santa Anita Handicap figures to be the best two-horse showdown since Noor beat Citation in 1950. Their backgrounds even match, foreign-bred versus Kentucky Derby champion. But which will be Noor this time?

It’s a decision for Solomon. Stevens has ridden both these horses to glory. Silver Charm brought him the notoriety of the Triple Crown. But Gentlemen is 6 years old, Silver Charm 4. And any horseman will tell you, in a pinch, pick the older horse.

Stevens has decided to defy the odds. He opted for the horse what brung him here, so to speak, Silver Charm. Sentiment? No. He picked him precisely because Silver Charm is only 4. “That means he’ll have several years of top racing ahead of him,” Stevens tells you. He wants to be on him when he does.

So he left Gentlemen for the crafty Pat Day to pilot. This promises to be the most stirring stretch duel since Longden rode Noor and Arcaro rode Citation in the Big ‘Cap of 1950. Not only a horse race, a rider race.

Maybe the race is only a hoodoo. And not only for riders, but for owners and trainers to, so to speak, double-cross themselves too.

Many years ago, in the Great Depression, there was this trainer-owner, Georgie Odom, and he had this clock-breaking older colt he had taken to the Narragansett track in Rhode Island. He dropped him in a cheap claimer, figuring he could use the quick money and no one would be savvy enough to claim him.

But, the night before, he was in a poker game with cronies and he decided to let them in on the secret so they could make a few bucks at the windows. Georgie was mellowed out by a bourbon or two. “You know,” he said, “I got this horse I’m tryin’ to get ready for that big $100,000 race they’re having out in California and I got him in this $5,000 claimer tomorrow ‘cause I need the money. Nobody knows about him, but if you guys want to make yourself a buck, go bet on him. He’s miles better than these others in there.”

One of the poker players that night was a gambler from Reno, a barber by profession, A.A. “Bert” Baroni.

Bert not only bet the horse. He claimed him. Two years later, in 1936, he won the Santa Anita Handicap with him. The horse’s name was Top Row.

Georgie Odom never spoke to Bert Baroni again. But Baroni had so much money by then, he didn’t notice.

You can see the Santa Anita Handicap is not for sissies. Gary Stevens better hope he doesn’t find out what Georgie Odom felt like in the stretch Saturday.