Stevens earns 5,000th North American win aboard Big 'Cap prospect

Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens got his 5,000th North American win Friday

aboard the Richard Mandella-trained Catch a Flight (Giant's Causeway) in Santa Anita's

$58,000 allowance feature, the

4TH race, as the Argentine-bred motored to a neck victory while covering 1

1/8 miles in 1:49.

Stevens, a 51-year-old native of Caldwell, Idaho, who has also ridden full-time

in England, France, and Hong Kong, reached the 5,000 world-wide plateau in 2005,

after which he retired from the saddle for seven years prior to returning to

active duty at Santa Anita in January, 2013.

A winner of three Kentucky Derbies, a record nine Santa Anita Derbies, four

Santa Anita Handicaps and 10 Breeders' Cup races, Stevens is considered one of

racing's all-time greats; however, his win Friday aboard 4-5 favorite Catch a

Flight was not an easy one.

"It's very special," Stevens said. "The owners, the trainers have been nice

enough to put me on all these good horses through the years. It's been a lot of

hard work, a lot of fun and obviously, I love it or I wouldn't be out there."

As for the margin of victory, Stevens explained that Catch a Flight has waited

on other horses in the morning and that he wasn't surprised when he appeared to

do it again today.

"In the mornings, any time a horse has come up and sort of challenged him, he's

done exactly what he did here," Stevens said. "(Sammy Mandville) is never going

to get by him, even galloping out, he never did get by him. I'm not sure this is

even far enough for him. He handled this just fine and it was racehorse time, but

he's going to enjoy a little bit further, I think.

"I worked him back in November and I didn't even know he had conditions, but

I said 'This might be our Big 'Cap horse.' We're all kind of thinking along the

same lines, but we'll see how he comes out of it -- he's definitely a Grade 1

type horse."