Gary L. Stevens

Who is Gary L. Stevens?

Gary Lynn Stevens is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, actor, and sports analyst. He became a jockey in 1979 with periods of temporary retirement due to knee problems from 1999 until 2000, and again from 2005-2013. He had an acting role in the 2003 film Seabiscuit and after his 2005 break from riding, worked for HRTV and NBC Sports as a horse racing analyst for seven years, had a brief stint as a race horse trainer, and took a few other acting roles, notably in the TV series Luck, before coming out of retirement again in 2013. In the 2013 season, he won 69 of 383 races and finished the year 12th in the nation in purse earnings, winning a number of significant races including the 2013 Preakness Stakes, the Breeders' Cup Distaff and the Breeders' Cup Classic. In 2014, he had a successful first half of the year, but his knee problems, including a completely torn ACL, became too severe to continue riding and by July, he announced a "break" in order to get a total knee replacement. He stated that he hopes to return to riding.