Jockey Gary Stevens retires

Gary Stevens started in Idaho, not too far down the road from where I lived in Oregon - both of us calling the Treasure Valley home at that time - so I have to admit I that I cheered pretty loudly out of plain old hometown spirit when he started making a name for himself at the big tracks, in a big way.

He rode his last race this weekend. See USATODAY.com - Jockey Stevens finishes second in last race. According to that article, he finished with 5,005 wins in his career. I can't get my head around that many races, much less that many wins.

For more on Stevens, see his Hall of Fame entry at National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, or see his write-up at IMDb. (He portrayed George Woolf in the movie Seabiscuit.)