Police: Stevens Received ‘Threatening’ Letter

Inglewood police are investigating what they characterize as a “threatening” anonymous letter received by leading jockey Gary Stevens in the Hollywood Park jockeys’ room last Sunday.

Both Inglewood police and a spokeswoman for the Pasadena Police Department said Thursday that there appears to be no link between the letter to Stevens and the Dec. 3 death of Chris Antley, another top jockey who was found dead, a victim of severe head trauma, in his Pasadena home.

Antley and Stevens were good friends--they won the Kentucky Derby five times between them--and Stevens might have been the last fellow jockey to see Antley alive, when he visited him three weeks before his death. Stevens was unsuccessful in reaching Antley on the phone the day before he died.

“There’s no hint that there’s any connection,” said Lt. Alex Perez of the Inglewood Police Department. “We feel that it’s a coincidence that two jockeys would be involved like this in a short period of time.”

Stevens, who was voted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1997, declined to discuss the letter. He has been riding regularly at Hollywood Park all week, and according to Inglewood police has received extra security at the track.

There were reports at the track that the letter was a death threat, but Perez didn’t call it that.

“I would call it a threatening letter, an extortion kind of thing,” he said.

Other Inglewood police have been reluctant to discuss the investigation, but it is known that at least one person was detained for questioning early this week.