Rees | Jockeys Velazquez, Stevens defy odds

Marquee horses for the Breeders' Cup have had a sudden spate of attrition: Defending winners Wise Dan, Beholder and now Magician, along with Juvenile favorite American Pharoah.

But let's celebrate three Hall of Famers who are back for the championship races Friday and Saturday at Santa Anita Park.

A year ago in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, Secret Compass suffered a fatal leg fracture, throwing John Velazquez to the ground. We didn't realize at the time how severe his injuries were, in part because Velazquez reportedly was talking about coming back to ride Wise Dan in the Mile.

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Instead, Velazquez was taken to the trauma center in nearby Pasadena, where they found his spleen was cut in half, his pancreas and kidney lacerated. As Wise Dan was repeating in the Mile under Jose Lezcano, Velazquez underwent emergency blood transfusions and had his spleen removed. A year later, the 42-year-old rides all 13 Cup races.

A year after Gary Stevens swept the $2 million Distaff and $5 million Classic, he rides Sivoliere in Friday's Juvenile Fillies Turf and Bakken in Saturday's Sprint. Those horses are somewhat of longshots compared with Beholder and Mucho Macho Man last year, but not as much as Stevens riding in the world's premier races 14 weeks after having total knee replacement on his right leg.

And Kent Desormeaux is back riding a month after getting nailed in the chest by a filly who became spooked and flipped coming onto the track. He raced to grab her reins, but the filly beat him to the punch, spinning and kicking him hard to break five ribs (though Desormeaux notes that four were "only" cracks).

"It's the most violent, scariest incident I've seen at a racetrack," said HRTV's Kurt Hoover, a racing analyst for 30 years. "If he didn't have that (safety) vest, he'd be dead."

Clearly, jockeys are wired differently than the rest of us.

Who would find it a good idea to get on another horse running 35 miles an hour in heavy traffic after coming within minutes of bleeding to death?

Who among us wouldn't look for another job after two or three knee surgeries on the same leg – let alone after the 13 that Stevens has undergone.

(Asked the last time his knee felt this good, Stevens said, "You're probably going to laugh, but 1985, before I ruined it the first time.")

I don't know where jockeys are tougher: physically or mentally.

"There's this little thing I have on Facebook," Desormeaux said. "It's a squirrel and it says, 'We've all got to be just a little crazy.' But people don't realize just how healthy jockeys are. A 44-year-old man who has to weigh 114, I mean, that's a healthy guy. I think that has a lot to do with our quick recoveries.

"It's not a matter of if (you come back), it's when," he said. "You just can't wait to come back. Thing is, it's not a matter of if but when you're going to fall again."

Velazquez told journalist Karen Johnson that he never considered retiring. He said that when he got home to New York, his wife asked him, "'What are you going to do?' I said, 'What do you mean?' She said, 'Are you going back?'

"I told Leona that it never occurred to me to retire. … We never talked about it again."

Said Stevens: "That's the way it is. If you're worried about it going out there, man, you probably shouldn't be doing it."

Why do it, especially throwing in the rigors for many of making weight?

"I love what I do," Stevens said. "People say, 'Well, you're 51.' To me, today's 50 is yesteryear's 30-year-old."

Chad Brown trains Stevens' Cup mounts and has Velazquez on Stephanie's Kitten in the Filly & Mare Turf.

"It's just remarkable," Brown said of the jockeys. "John already has won two Grade I races for me this year. He's obviously back in career form riding after that really scary incident last year — where he could have died.

"I talked to Gary, and he looks good. ... These riders as they're older, all the timing they acquire over time, all that decision-making, especially on a big day, that's priceless. So if I had to pick a trait I'm going to have to lean on most on Breeders' Cup Championship day, it's somebody with a lot of experience and making good decisions.

"He's not the kind of person who is going to ride if he wasn't ready."

Contact Jennie Rees at 502-582-4042. Follow her on Twitter @CJ_Jennie, Facebook.com/CJJennie.