Tag Archives: Bank of America Challenge

Hollywood, The Derby and Minnesota

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Gary Stevens

Retired jockey Gary Stevens will once again be appearing on the Kentucky Derby pre-show this year. Although many may not have heard of his three-time Derby winning career, a lot of people still recognize him from his starring stint in the movie Seabiscuit. Stevens played George “Iceman” Woolfe, aka, the guy who takes over for Red Pollard (Tobey McGuire) in the match race scene after Pollard/McGuire gets hurt.

What even fewer people know, is that Stevens is the younger brother to Scott Ste

vens, jockey at Minnesota’s Canterbury Park. It’s a fun Hollywood tie I like to let others in on.

Scott Stevens is just as accomplished, and still riding. He holds the Canterbury record for most starts (5,710), and is just seven wins behind Derek Bell, the all-time winningest jockey there.

Stevens is an incredible jockey, and an all-around nice guy. He was my favorite to watch and every once in awhile, will still ride a Quarter Horse. In fact, he has ridden some of our horses. Both Scott and Gary learned to ride on the

Scott Stevens

Quarter Horses and eventually moved to Thoroughbreds.

Last July, the then 49-year-old Scott, was airlifted from the track to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minn. after suffering multiple injuries during a ride in the sixth race. Although he was initially listed as in critical condition, Scott rallied was eventually released.

Although he has batted around the idea of retirement in the media, all on the backside of Canterbury are hoping he returns this year, once again.

It’s a big weekend for the sprinters

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On Friday, one of the biggest but little-known weekends in racing will begin: The Bank of America Challenge Championships.

The Challenge Championships is to American Quarter Horses what the Breeders’ Cup is to Thoroughbreds – sort of. Horses will be running a number of prestigious races they have had to qualify for by winning regional races throughout the country this year.  The Challenge will offer more than $5 million in purse money this weekend alone.

I admit, I’m actually partial to the Challenge since Quarter Horses are my family’s business but this is probably a good time to explain some of the differences between the two breeds of racing. 

There are a number of differences between running the Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses but I think it is best explained by thinking of Quarter Horses as the sprinters whereas Thoroughbreds are the distance runners.

Quarter Horses actually take the title of the “fastest” horse in the world as they can (and do) reach speeds of nearly 50 mph.

The average distance for an American Quarter Horse race is about 350 yards but it can vary from a 100 yards to 850 yards. Many times Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds will be racing at the same track during the same season or when a track hosts a “mixed meet” During a mixed meet, Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds sometimes run against one another in an 850-yard race, and those can be interesting, if not fun for bragging rights.

At such short distances, Quarter Horse races time out between 17 and 18 seconds. In less than a minute, years of work, money, and hope can pay of…or not. There is no time for Quarter Horses to be closers, they have to be out in front with a clear path from the start or be ready to fight for the lead with everything they have.

This year’s Bank of America Challenge will be held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. First post is 5 p.m. Friday. All 13 races will be shown live nationally on HRTV, and this year’s show will be hosted by Gary Stevens and Jon White. Stevens is a hall-of-fame jockey who often does the Kentucky Derby show and also starred in Seabiscuit. Stevens and his brother Scott (who still rides at Canterbury in the Twin Cities) got started riding Quarter Horses.