Scott Stevens wins George Woolf Award

Scott Stevens has won 4,890 races in his own right and has served as a mentor and inspiration to riders who have won thousands more, most notably his younger brother, Hall of Fame jockey Gary. His respect among his peers was solidified on Friday, when he was announced by Santa Anita as the winner of the 2019 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which Santa Anita has presented annually since 1950.

Scott and Gary Stevens thus become the first brothers to receive the Woolf Award, which Gary won in 1996.

The Woolf Award honors achievements to racing both on and off the track. It is named for the late Hall of Fame rider who died in a racing accident at Santa Anita in 1946. It is voted on by members of the Jockeys’ Guild, and thus is highly coveted. The other finalists this year were Joe Bravo, Kerwin Clark, John Davila Jr., and Julien Leparoux.

Stevens, 58, is currently riding at Turf Paradise, where he is based during the winter, has been the meet’s leading rider nine times, and won two races on Wednesday. He began his career in his native Idaho in 1976 and rode all through the West, including Southern California, before settling for much of his career on a seasonal campaign that saw him spend the winter in Arizona and the summer at Canterbury Park in Minnesota. He is in the racing Halls of Fame for both Idaho and Canterbury.

His best year for both wins (274) and earnings by his mounts ($1,893,434) came in 1995.

Among the top horses Stevens has ridden during his career are Great Communicator, best known for winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf under Ray Sibille, and Real Quiet, who nearly swept the Triple Crown under Kent Desormeaux. Stevens won the Grade 3 Phoenix Gold Cup on Rotsaluck in 1997.

Stevens has been compared to the fictional Crash Davis of the movie “Bull Durham,” a top athlete who has spent the bulk of his career just below the biggest circuits but is widely respected by his peers for his integrity, his counsel, and, perhaps most of all in Stevens’s case, his courage. He has suffered numerous serious injuries, in one case a life-threatening one, but has continued to compete because he loves it.

“I love to win races. I love being in the jocks’ room,” Stevens said in an interview with Daily Racing Form eight years ago. “When Gary rode in the Legends race at Santa Anita a couple of years ago, I saw Eddie Delahoussaye in the grandstand. He said he’d be out there in a heartbeat. We all feel that way.

“If the day comes when I don’t feel like doing it, when it feels like a job, I’ll go out gracefully and be proud of what I did.”

Stevens has two grown children.

The date Stevens will receive the award has yet to be determined, but usually it is presented at Santa Anita in late spring.