Retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, a winner of a record nine
Santa Anita Derbies, will throw out a ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium
on Wednesday in advance of the Dodgers’ Freeway Series finale with the
Angels, which starts at 12:10 p.m.
Stevens will also be an honored guest at Santa Anita
Wednesday morning, as he’ll be among a large group of racing luminaries
on hand for the Santa Anita Derby Draw Breakfast in the track’s
FrontRunner Restaurant, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The Draw Breakfast will be
emceed by top rated radio personality Tim Conway Jr.
“This is really awesome,” said Stevens.
“I’m a big Dodger fan and I’m really honored by this.
I’m going to bring my wife (Angie) and my little girl (Maddie) and
we’re going to take a lot of pictures. It should be a great day!”
Stevens who is currently working as a racing analyst with
HRTV and NBC, won his first Santa Anita Derby in 1988 with the brilliant filly
Winning Colors. Owned by Eugene Klein and trained by D. Wayne Lukas, Winning
Colors went on to win the Kentucky Derby as well, the first of three Run for
the Roses triumphs for the native of Caldwell,
Idaho.
His other Santa Anita Derby wins came with Mister Frisky
(1990), Personal Hope (1993), Brocco (1994), Larry The Legend (1995), Indian
Charlie (1998), General Challenge (1999), Point Given (2001) and Buddy Gil
(2003).
Stevens won racing’s Eclipse Award as Champion Jockey
in 1998 and in what he often refers to as his most cherished accomplishment, he
was selected by jockeys nationwide as the winner of the 1996 Santa Anita George
Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.
In addition to Winning Colors in 1988, Stevens won the
Kentucky Derby in 1995 with Thunder Gulch and in 1997 with Silver Charm.
Along with his Kentucky Derby victories, he also had five
other Triple Crowns wins, two in the Preakness and three in the Belmont.
A winner of 4,888 career races, Stevens was a four-time
winner of the Santa Anita Handicap and he amassed eight Breeders’ Cup wins
as well.
Stevens, 49, was inducted into the National Museum of
Racing and Hall of Fame in 1997 and he retired on Nov. 27, 2005.