Louisville Magazine

APR 2014

Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.

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1 4 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 4.14 W hen my friend Woody Stephens arrived from Florida for the 1984 spring meet at Keeneland, he was a sick man getting sicker by the day. It had nothing to do with the stress involved in training the ballyhooed Devil's Bag, winter favorite for the Kentucky Derby, or his stablemate Swale, winner of the Florida Derby. It was just the stuf that can happen to a man when he gets to be 71. Early in the year his mother died. Ten he broke some ribs when he fell. And then the broken ribs aggravated his chronic emphysema. So Stephens was hardly himself when he got to Kentucky. He had lost the cockiness in his trademark cackle of a laugh. We had been friends since 1974, when Stephens won the 100th Kentucky Derby with Cannonade. We both had roots in central Kentucky, we both liked to talk about Woody Stephens, and we both were not adverse to meeting for the occasional scotch-and-water. In fact, on the cold and gray day in 1984 at Keeneland when Swale lost by eight lengths in his fnal Derby prep, the Lexington Stakes, we repaired to a bar in the clubhouse so Stephens could assess the damage. I was surprised when he said, "I've already forgotten that race. He didn't like the track, but he got the workout he needed." A couple of days later, Stephens' cousin, Dr. David Richardson of Louisville, called to tell me that he and his brother Ron, also a physician, had checked Stephens into a Lexington hospital. He had a severe case of pneumonia. But Richardson said not to worry about a visit because they were going to move Stephens to Jewish Hospital in downtown Louisville, where he would watch on TV as Devil's Bag ran in the Derby Trial on opening day at Churchill Downs. As sports editor of the Courier-Journal, it was my job to be where the news was. So I asked Richardson to check with Stephens and see if it would be OK for me to watch the Trial with him in his hospital room. And, by the way, could I bring a photographer? When the photographer and I showed up, Stephens was propped up in bed on a couple of pillows. He had put on a dress shirt and a pair of slacks. Lying there in the hospital, Stephens saw Devil's Bag win easily. But he didn't see what he needed to see in terms of the Derby seven days later. He turned to me and said, "Swale's the one to beat now. I really believe he is." Tree days later, the Tuesday before the Derby, the Richardson brothers hauled Stephens to Churchill so he could make it ofcial: Devil's Bag, who had been syndicated for $36.4 million after a brilliant fve-for-fve season as a two-year-old, would not run. By Derby Day, Stephens had improved enough to leave the hospital and check into his suite at the Executive Inn. I knew he had made arrangements with Churchill president Lynn Stone to have a car pick him up at the hotel and a police escort to take him and his wife Lucille through the crowd to the directors room. I was waiting when Stephens arrived there. Exhausted, he slumped into an easy chair in front of a TV. Te Richardsons were there in case he started feeling bad and a waiter made sure he had all the liquid refreshment he needed. And that's right where he was when the gate sprang open and unleashed the 20-horse feld. He didn't say anything as jockey Laft Pincay Jr. quickly moved Swale into third place, where he stayed until the top of the stretch. As Pincay coaxed Swale to the lead, Stephens scooted up in his chair and said, "He's going to win by fve!" Well, not quite. But his 3ΒΌ-length victory left no doubt about who was best. Surrounded by police, Woody and Lucille were hustled through the boisterous crowd to the winner's circle, where photographers had to almost beg the normally ebullient trainer to smile. "I've been a sick man," Stephens said. Only two days after the Derby, Devil's Bag was retired to stud duty. Swale skipped the Preakness but came back to become the third of Stephens' fve consecutive Belmont Stakes winners. Te day after the Belmont, Swale died of an apparent heart attack. My friend Stephens got his health back and enjoyed many more victories and scotch-and-waters before his death in 1998. Every time we met, he insisted I look at the watch that the New York Racing Association gave him after his ffth straight Belmont victory. "See that, Bill," he'd say with that cackle. "Get a good look 'cause nobody's ever going to get another one of these." IT'S NOT WHERE YOU WATCH THE DERBY BUT WITH WHOM. By Billy Reed 10 TIP Photo from Churchill Downs, Inc./Kinetic Corp. The late trainer Woody Stephens (holding lead chain) at the 1984 Derby. 10-25.indd 14 3/19/14 5:16 PM

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