From Here To Hong Kong - By Horseback

If he didn’t have everything, he came as close as anyone gets. Wealth, fame, talent, success, youth … what else did Gary Stevens need? But Stevens packed up and walked away last week, leaving behind - at least temporarily - a fabulously successful riding career in California. He left in hope there is perhaps something even better out there - a new adventure and a chance to breathe.

Stevens, 31, winner of a Kentucky Derby and three Breeders’ Cup races, officially began his new career Sunday in Hong Kong, where he rode two winners at the Sha Tin Race Course. His great experiment lasts another 4-1/2 months, but so far everything he has seen and done has led him to believe he is about to take the ride of a lifetime.

It began Jan. 20, when he received a call from trainer Steve Leung, who presented Stevens an offer to become his stable rider in racing-mad Hong Kong. Though Stevens will not disclose the monetary portion of the contract, he has said it includes a house, maid, car, expenses and Leung will pay the fare when Stevens wants to fly over friends and relatives. But perhaps the most appealing aspect was the racing schedule in Hong Kong, where the track operates just twice a week.

“I went 12 years without any kind of break, unless I happened to be injured,” said Stevens, who grew up near Boise and, as a child, spent a year working for his father at Playfair Race Course in Spokane. “The schedule you have to keep wears on you, and that was one of my main incentives for leaving. For 4-1/2 months I can get a nice break, ride two days a week and see something new.”

In the meantime, Stevens must acclimate to a new country, one in which racing is always center stage and its players are stars. At his debut performance, 70,000 fans packed Sha Tin.

“When I got off the plane Thursday, I didn’t feel like a jockey, but like a big star in the NBA must feel,” he said. “Horse racing gets as big a following here as basketball does in the U.S. Every day at the track is like Breeders’ Cup Day. As soon as I got out of customs, there must have been 50 reporters and photographers waiting to interview me. It took me an hour just to get through with that. The first day at the track, it was more of the same.

The Hong Kong racing season ends June 11, at which time Stevens will return to California. Stevens has an option to renew his contract for the following year, and if so, would have to return to Hong Kong by September.

Run for the Roses?

When asked whether he will try to line up a Kentucky Derby mount, Stevens said: “I wouldn’t waste my time coming back. I don’t think Afternoon Deelites can get beat, and I don’t ride him. I haven’t seen anything like Afternoon Deelites since watching tapes of Secretariat’s races. When I rode against him in the Hollywood Futurity, I was in awe.” Afternoon Deelites, the winter-book favorite for the Derby at many Las Vegas casinos, will make his 3-year-old debut Sunday in the San Vicente at Santa Anita.

Japanese influence

A first-ever Japanese starter may show up at this year’s Kentucky Derby. Owner Teruya Yoshida plans to ship Ski Captain here for the Triple Crown series. The colt by Storm Bird is 3 for 4, with his lone loss coming to Japanese 2-year-old champion Fuji Kiseki, a son of Sunday Silence. Ski Captain prepped for the Derby, winning an $800,000 race Sunday at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan… . Tabasco Cat, who had been sidelined briefly with minor problems, worked three furlongs in :39.80 Sunday at Santa Anita. Trainer Wayne Lukas is eying the Met Mile, where Tabasco Cat likely will meet nemesis Holy Bull.