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"Seabiscuit" Jockey's Unlucky Spill
First the bad news--he lost the race in what was a million-dollar fall. But the good news for Gary Stevens, the Hall of Fame jockey who played a pivotal part in this summer's horsey hit Seabiscuit, is that he's lucky he came out of it largely unscathed.
Stevens was hospitalized on Saturday after being thrown from his mount, Storming Home, and trampled just as he crossed the finished line at the Arlington Million in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
For those who've seen Seabiscuit, Stevens plays jockey great George Woolf, Red Pollard's friend and rival who ended up guiding Seabiscuit to victory during a key race when, ironically, Pollard (Tobey Maguire) winds up bed-ridden after getting thrown from a racehorse.
Stevens, himself one of the sport's greats who's now trying to segue into acting (and was the recent subject of a Vanity Fair phoot shoot), was on his way to piloting his Thoroughbred to an offscreen win when he took his tumble.
The accident occurred when Stevens' steed bolted unexpectedly to the outside just before the wire and bumped into several horses, flinging the jockey to the turf. Initially, Stevens tried to hang on, but ended up falling and getting clipped by a hoof from one of the 13-horse pack. The hoof hit Stevens on the shoulder and barely missed his head.
After lying motionless on the track for several minutes, the roughed-up Stevens sat up and moved his legs, but had to be carried off by a stretcher.
"Gary is conscious and talking," Arlington chaplain Dennis Nelson told reporters after riding with Stevens to the hospital. "He has been given a painkiller and had X-rays taken of his left shoulder, which he said was stepped on."
No bones were broken in the mishap, but a statement from Stevens' public relations firm indicated on Sunday he was being treated for a collapsed lung. The pint-sized rider is expected to be discharged from the hospital in the next few days.
While it wasn't one for the books, the race and subsequently bizarre finish had all the drama of a Hollywood movie.
Although Storming Home finishing the race in first place, a half-length ahead of Sulamani, the interference cost him race. (After two other riders in the race objected, judges took a second look and disqualified Stevens' horse, dropping it to fourth place, while declaring Sulamani the winner, prompting boos from the crowd.)
Sounds like a scene right out of Seabiscuit. Speaking of which, while director Gary Ross' feel-good underdog, (or is that underequine?) film based on Laura Hillenbrand's 2001 best-selling book didn't exactly explode out of the gate upon its July 22 release, Seabiscuit definitely has legs.
The film grossed an additional $8 million over the weekend to bring its total to a respectable $83 million in ticket sales and is on pace to hit the coveted $100 million mark.
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