Hovdey: Smith, Stevens help give students a ride

It won’t exactly be the second coming of Damascus vs. Dr. Fager. But when Gabriel Charles and Power Ped take the field Saturday in the $400,000 Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar, there’s a chance it will be worth the price of admission just watching the guys in the saddle.

Mike Smith and Gary Stevens can tell you the exact date when they first met – it was April 20, 1985 – for reasons that had little to do with their common destinies as future Hall of Famers.

“It was at Oaklawn Park,” Stevens said. “I was there to ride Tank’s Prospect in the Arkansas Derby, and it turned out to be my first win in a half-million-dollar race.”

Smith had that beat.

“It was my wedding day,” he said.

“I was packing up my stuff to leave after the races,” Stevens recalled. “Mike comes up to me, and he asks me for my whip, like he was looking up to me even though we were only a couple years apart.”

“That’s right,” Smith said. “And then I invited him to the wedding.”

Stevens was traveling with Eddie Delahoussaye, so the two of them had dinner and arrived late to the reception. To their horror, the bar was about to close.

“We had them open up again and made it a no-host bar the rest of the night,” Stevens said. “Me and Mike have been friends ever since.”

That in itself is not unusual. Smith was 19, and Stevens had just turned 22, and many college-age friendships have lasted longer. What is downright amazing is that both Smith and Stevens are doing now what they were doing back then, which is competing at the highest level of a profession that wears down both the body and mind.

Whether they can make the magic in the Eddie Read remains to be seen. Smith won the Grade 1 event for the first time last year aboard Tom’s Tribute, while Stevens won his first running of the Read 30 years ago with Tsunami Slew for trainer Eddie Gregson. This is what can be called perfect bookends because now Stevens and Smith are stepping up to help the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation as the honorees of the organization’s 2015 fund-raising awards dinner, which is being held at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar Resort on Monday, Aug. 3.

The mission of the Gregson Foundation is simple and direct. It holds to the philosophy that the sons and daughters of the men and women who care for the horses deserve a chance at the kind of education that will give them choices in life. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the foundation’s board of directors, and proud of it.)

Scholarships from the Gregson Foundation have helped students attend such bastions of higher learning as Columbia, UCLA, Brigham Young, and Le Cordon Bleu. Brianne O’Donoghue is studying political science at Wellesley. Ariana Reynoso, who graduated from UC-Berkeley with a degree in sociology, went to work for the nonprofit Teach for America. Mary Ellet, a 2015 graduate of Chapman University, has earned a coveted place in the Flying Start program sponsored by Darley.

Even as a couple of high-school dropouts who made good, Smith and Stevens look at such young people in awe.

“I got an opportunity to ride when I was 16 years old and did pretty well from a young age,” Smith said. “At that age, all you think you need is the horse – you don’t need an education. As you get older and wiser, I sure wish I would have.”

“I got out of school early to ride,” said Stevens, who followed his brother Scott into the riding life. “But I didn’t keep a promise to my mother that I would get my GED, like my brother did.”

Stevens entered the Hall of Fame in 1997, while Smith followed in 2003. The longevity of their careers has afforded them unusual opportunities beyond their domestic riding business.

Stevens rode for extended periods in England, France, and Hong Kong, then turned to acting during his nearly six years away from the sport while his arthritic knees got a rest.

Smith never needed such a break, although six months in a body cast for a broken back in 1998 could have put an early end to a brilliant career. Smith also tried his hand at acting, although the character he played in the reality show “Jockeys” was named Mike Smith.

Gregson was a young man of privilege who dabbled in both higher education and show business before finding his true calling as a Thoroughbred trainer. By the time Stevens came around in California, Gregson already had won the 1982 Kentucky Derby with Gato Del Sol.

“He was one of the most caring gentlemen I’ve ever known,” Stevens said. “And not only for the equine athlete, but for the human beings surrounding them, no matter what their level of involvement.”

Gregson was a driving force behind a horsemen’s fund dedicated to backstretch scholarships. In the wake of his death in 2000, the Edwin J. Gregson Foundation was established to carry on the work. Hundreds of young people have benefited since then, and now Smith and Stevens are doing their part to keep the cause alive.

“It was a surprise, but about 10 years ago the Boise School District issued me an honorary high-school diploma,” Stevens said. “I guess they figured with all my world travels and experiences, I must have learned something.”

And Mike?

“I’ve still got Gary’s whip.”