Stevens Hopes His Switch Will Work

Jockey Gary Stevens and trainer Bob Baffert may have kissed and made up, but that won’t stop Stevens from trying to beat Baffert’s Captain Steve in Sunday’s $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

Stevens, who has won the Classic twice--with Bertrando and Gentlemen--since it was first run in 1991, rode Captain Steve in his last two races, but he’ll be aboard Until Sundown when Victor Espinoza takes over on Baffert’s colt Sunday.

Until Sundown, who didn’t get to the races until 61/2 months ago, has three victories and three second places in six starts this year and will try to become only the third 3-year-old to win Del Mar’s signature race. Skimming, last year’s winner, will be favored against five or six rivals expected to be entered today.

Stevens said that the jawing between him and Baffert minutes after Point Given’s victory in the $1.5-million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 5 is unrelated to his not riding Captain Steve.

“Bob and I are still friends,” Stevens said. “The way I understand it, my agent [Tony Matos] had given out the call for Until Sundown before the San Diego Handicap.”

Captain Steve, winless in three starts since Jerry Bailey rode him to victory in the Dubai World Cup in March, finished third, behind Skimming and Futural, in the San Diego Handicap here on July 29. That was the second time Stevens had ridden Captain Steve. In the Hollywood Gold Cup, Stevens and Captain Steve were a well-beaten fourth.

“I don’t know whether it’s been the effects of that long trip to Dubai or just me,” Stevens said of Captain Steve’s doldrums, “but I haven’t done well with him the two tries I’ve had. Down the road [the $4-million Breeders’ Cup at Belmont Park on Oct. 27], Point Given and Captain Steve figure to meet, and since I ride Point Given, it’s probably a good idea that a new rider get used to riding Captain Steve.”

Espinoza, who rode in the Pacific Classic for the first time last year, finishing last with the Baffert-trained River Keen, has ridden Captain Steve once, for his second-place finish behind Tiznow in last year’s Goodwood Handicap at Santa Anita.

The only time Stevens hasn’t ridden Until Sundown was when Chris McCarron finished second with the colt as Stevens rode Baffert’s Congaree to victory in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park on July 15.

Three weeks later, the winner’s circle gathering after the Haskell wasn’t a typically giddy occasion. Through the Monmouth stewards, in what is believed to be an unprecedented request, Baffert had sent last-minute instructions that were relayed, via one of the track’s outriders, to Stevens as he was finishing Point Given’s prerace warmup.

After Point Given’s half-length victory over the longshot Touch Tone, Stevens returned to the enclosure and invited Baffert to fire him if he didn’t like the way he rode the colt. Baffert, at first critical of Stevens’ ride, recanted after watching a television replay.

Baffert wanted Stevens, a Hall of Fame jockey, to avoid whipping Point Given from the right side in the stretch, a tactic that had caused the Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner to lug in during previous races.

“I don’t know whether it’s a superstition with Bob or not,” Stevens said, “but the last instruction he usually gives you is not to whip one of his horses right-handed. But that day he didn’t say anything about that. I guess I was more embarrassed about what happened than anything else. When the [outrider] came out to me like that, it must have hurt my ego.”

Stevens posed for pictures, but then made a quick exit from the Haskell winner’s circle. He said that Baffert later toasted him in the celebration in the Monmouth directors’ room.

“The next day, Bob and I sat down and had a talk,” Stevens said. “I think the Haskell was the best I’ve ever ridden this horse. We agreed that this isn’t Bob Baffert’s show, and it’s not Gary Stevens’ show. This is Point Given’s show. This horse is in store for an amazing ride the rest of the year, and we agreed to put everything else aside and just enjoy the ride.”

Point Given, who raced in a protective bar shoe to protect a sensitive left hind foot in the Haskell, is the favorite for horse-of-the-year honors. He worked a quick three furlongs at Del Mar on Tuesday in :34 2/5, but it’s still unclear whether he’ll be put on another plane and run in the Travers at Saratoga on Aug. 25.

The reigning horse of the year, Tiznow, also worked Tuesday, breezing seven furlongs in a sharp 1:24 3/5, and while his plans are also uncertain, the horse could resurface in the Woodward at Belmont Park on Sept. 8. Tiznow hasn’t run since winning the Santa Anita Handicap on March 3.

Stevens regrets what happened in New Jersey.

“It reminded me of some things I said about [Hall of Fame trainer Woody Stephens] after our horses [the jockey’s Winning Colors and the trainer’s Forty Niner] got into it in the 1988 Preakness,” Stevens said. “I wasn’t proud of the way I handled myself that time, either.”

Stevens will try to win the Pacific Classic for the first time since he clicked with Gentlemen in 1997. He remembers one of the first times he saw Until Sundown, for a workout by trainer Laura De Seroux’s then-unraced 2-year-old at Hollywood Park in late 2000.

“We went three furlongs,” he said, “and I got off the colt and told [De Seroux assistant Alex Hassinger Jr.] that there was no point in sprinting the horse, because he didn’t have any speed. Was I wrong. I thought we had gone in about 39 [seconds], and the clockers caught him in :34 2/5. When a horse does something that easy and I’m that far off on him, you know he’s going to be a runner.”

Until Sundown’s blazing workout was also punishing. He came out of the exercise with sore shins, accounting for his delayed debut early this year. In the Pacific Classic, he’ll carry 117 pounds, seven fewer than Skimming and the other older horses. Stevens feels that will matter.

“This time of the year, 3-year-olds can catch up to the older horses,” Stevens said. “It’s been an exceptional 3-year-old crop--I’ve been saying it, others have said it--and I think Until Sundown fits in with the best of them.”

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With the field sliced to three by two scratches, favored Officer cruised to a seven-length victory in the $138,000 Best Pal Stakes on Wednesday, giving Victor Espinoza his third victory on the card .... Hap, at 5-2, and Bienamado, at 7-2, are the morning-line favorites for Saturday’s Arlington Million, which drew an international field of 11 grass horses. Hap drew the rail, and outside him will come Silvano, Redattore, Takarian, Muakaad, White Heart, Senure, Compton Bolter, Quiet Resolve, Bienamado and Make No Mistake.