Gary Stevens

Gary Stevens, the Hall of Fame jockey who has won eight Breeders' Cup races, said Thursday he wouldn't be riding in the Cup races at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30 because of insurance considerations. Stevens said that Lone Star officials, aware of his planned boycott of the Breeders' Cup, offered to provide $500,000 worth of accident insurance, but that wasn't enough to persuade him to ride.

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens has more than 4,700 wins, including three Kentucky Derby victories. Last year, he played a riding legend in the film "Seabiscuit." And right now, he's in the homestretch of the Oak Tree season at Santa Anita Park. So about the last thing he'd want to do with his free time is go horseback riding. Instead, he'll hop onto his trusty Harley-Davidson for a spin through the mountains.

Gary Stevens, 88, who rose from radio scriptwriter to publicist and producer of such radio and television shows as "Twenty Questions," died of a heart ailment May 17 at his New York home. A native of Lake Forest, Ill., Stevens began working for radio in New York as a teenager. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and speech at the University of Chicago and a master's degree from New York University.

I feel compelled to respond to the comments made by Gary Stevens in Bill Christine's article (Stevens Returns After Having Security Concerns, Feb. 14). Gary stated that "there have been some cutbacks made at the track, and on slow days there aren't as many security people as they usually have." Does anybody think that it takes as many security officers to handle a crowd of 4,000 as it does to handle 20,000? I think not. The security force at Santa Anita Park is substantial.

Gary Stevens took off his last mount Thursday because of post-race security concerns at Santa Anita. Stevens, a Hall of Fame jockey who portrayed George Woolf in the Oscar-nominated "Seabiscuit," resumed riding Friday after having been assured by track officials that security would be improved. After races at Santa Anita, riders must take a long walk -- part of it through the crowd -- to reach the jockeys' room.

Give the Aga Khan a smidgen of the credit for Sweet Return landing in the lap of John Brunetti, who waited more than 35 years before his family won a Grade I race.

Maybe someday, the jock's room at Santa Anita will rival Schwab's Drug Store on Hollywood and Vine where, legend has it, Lana Turner was discovered and a star was born.

Less than three weeks after he was injured in a freak accident in the Arlington Million, jockey Gary Stevens will be back today at Del Mar. Originally scheduled to be out a month because of a collapsed lung suffered when he was dumped by Storming Home on Aug. 16, Stevens will return to ride Fly to the Wire in the $75,000 El Cajon Stakes.

Jockey Gary Stevens said Wednesday that he couldn't remember anything that happened in the stretch run of Saturday's Arlington Million. Stevens' horse, Storming Home, appeared to have the race won, but just before the wire he bolted to the outside, fouled other horses and dropped his rider, who was hospitalized with a collapsed lung and other injuries.

Jockey Gary Stevens, still hospitalized from injuries suffered when his wayward horse fouled other horses while winning Saturday's Arlington Million in suburban Chicago, will be sidelined for a month, his theatrical agent, Eddie Goldstone, said Monday. Stevens, who was unseated while trying to control the veering Storming Home just past the finish line, could be released from the hospital today.