STEPHENS, Woodford Cefis ("Woody")

(b. 1 September 1913, in Stanton, Kentucky; d. 22 August 1998 in Miami Lakes, Florida), Thoroughbred racehorse trainer and breeder who was named Trainer of the Decade (1980s), known for his knowledge of horses, quick wit, and great stories.

Stephens was the oldest of seven children of Lewis Stephens, a tenant farmer, and Helen Welsh Stephens, a homemaker. Stephens reminisced, "my mother and father raised five daughters, two sons, a bunch of chickens and somebody else's tobacco crops." "My father was a sharecropper," he said. "He'd sit me on the back of a mule and say, 'He's a born horseman.'" Stephens galloped his pony Bill to school in the 1920s and dreamed of being a jockey. When he was ten, his family moved to Midway, Kentucky.

At the age of sixteen Stephens dropped out of ninth grade to work for the stable of trainer John Ward at Everglade Stables. Stephens, in his autobiography, spoke about waking up "ahead of the roosters" and daydreaming about working with horses. He commented that he always had horses on his mind and that for more than fifty years "I've had my hands on horses, a few of them mine, most of them owned by other people bent on seeing them out on the racetrack creaming the competition."

In a very short time Stephens got his break and fulfilled his dream of becoming a jockey. He won his first race aboard Directly on 15 January 1931 at Hialeah Park in Florida, the horse paying $37.70 for a $2 wager. His career as a rider was short-lived, as he soon grew too big to be a jockey. He became a groom and then worked his way up to be Ward's assistant trainer. "I guess the luckiest thing that ever happened was for me to get fat." While working for Ward he earned his trainer's license on 18 June 1936 and saddled his first winner as the trainer of record of Deliberator at Latonia Park in Kentucky.

Stephens left Ward's stable in 1937; married Lucille Elizabeth Easley on 11 September the same year; and set out on his own. He became affiliated with Steve Judge in 1940 as assistant trainer for Woodford Farm. In 1940 he trained his first winner as an independent trainer, Bronze Bugle, at Keeneland in Kentucky.

Stephens got his first big break as a trainer in 1944 when he met a professional horseplayer named Jule Fink, who asked him to come to New York to train a string of horses for a salary of $1,000 a month and 15 percent of all winning purses. Stephens's first stakes winner was Sanguaro, who won the 1945 Excelsior Handicap at Aqueduct Race course in New York for Fink. Stephens stayed with Fink for about two and a half years before the two parted company. Stephens later hooked up with Royce Martin's Woodvale Farm and won his first major stake by sending out the farm's homebred mare Marta to win the 1951 Ladies Handicap.

Stephens's first classic race success came in 1952 when Blue Man won the Flamingo, finished third in the Kentucky Derby, and took the Preakness. Stephens had inherited Blue Man from one of his former mentors, Steve Judge. Judge owned Blue Man before selling the colt to Arthur Abbott, and Stephens took over the training at that time. Blue Man had been running in claiming races as a two-year-old, but as with many horses that others were willing to give up on, Stephens saw potential in the colt. When racing, "if you tried to take hold of him, he'd fight the bit, throw up his head and it was over for the day." But Stephens thought that Blue Man might be a pretty good horse if he was treated right. "I gave him a lot of time that fall to quiet down and get working. He was trained to the letter when I ran him in an allowance race at Belmont Park. I bet on him and he paid $41.00." Stephens felt that he was making progress with the colt and went on with him. Unlike trainers who tried to disassociate themselves from gambling, Stephens was no stranger to betting and that behavior made him a favorite of fans. He always relished scoring a big one.

Stephens's career progressed in a positive direction, and in 1956 he accepted a job with Captain Harry F. Guggenheim's Cain Hoy Stable at $50,000 a year and 20 percent of all profits. He worked for Cain Hoy for nine years and put the outfit at the top of the owner's list in 1959, with earnings of $742,081. Over one-third of this amount was earned by Bald Eagle, who won the first of his two Washington Internationals that year. Stephens left Cain Hoy when Captain Guggenheim refused to let him train horses owned by Stephen's wife, Lucille. It was a decision that Captain Guggenheim regretted many times. "It was my worst decision to let Woody get away."

In 1966 Stephens once again opened a public stable, which over the years attracted such prominent clients as John Gaines, Louis Lee Haggin, John Morris, John Okin, James Box Brady, August Belmont IV, Henryk de Kwiatkowski, Betty Moran's Brushwood Stables, Robert Kirkham, Claiborne Farm, Hickory Tree Farm, Newstead Farm, and Ryehill. Stephens's champions included Bold Bidder, Heavenly Body, Never Bend, and Sensational. His major winners included Iron Peg, Judger, Make Sail, Missile Belle, Smarten, Traffic Judge, White Star Line, Marta, Kittiwak, Number, Bless Bull, Mrs. Warren, Miss Oceana, and Forty Niner.

Stephens's two Kentucky Derby winners were Cannonade in 1974, and Swale in 1984, which gave Claiborne Farm its first Kentucky Derby victory. His five Belmont Stakes winners came in consecutive years: Conquistador Cielo (1982), Caveat (1983), Swale (1984), Crème Fraiche (1985), and Danzig Connection (1986). In the long history of Thoroughbred horse racing, no other trainer has come close to matching Stephens's record. He earned his first Eclipse Award in 1983 as Trainer of the Year.

Stephens officially retired on 22 September 1997 after sixty-seven years in the horse business, but kept in close touch with the racing industry up until his death. He was a champion in all ways. He trained horses that won over 200 stakes races in his career, more than 100 of them were Grade 1 stakes races. He trained eleven Eclipse Award winning horses. Stephens was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1976 and wrote his autobiography, Guess I'm Lucky: My Life in Horseracing, in 1976.

Stephens died at Heartland Health Care Center in Miami Lakes, Florida, of chronic emphysema and lung disease. He is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky.

Stephens was a trainer that few who knew him will forget. His many friends and acquaintances and those whom he mentored will miss him for his enthusiasm, his zest for each and every day, his wit, wisdom, kindness, and humanity. Seth Hancock, longtime president of Claiborne Farm, said "He's the embodiment of what a real horseman is." Stephens was always upbeat, a trait for which his owners were grateful, and an unusual one in the racing game because of all the ups and downs of the business. A remarkable human being who always gave the best of himself, his time, his talent, and his wisdom, Stephens was also a raconteur of note who shared his great stories about his many horses.

Files on Stephens are at the National Museum of Racing and Thoroughbred Hall of Fame at Saratoga Springs, New York, and the New York Racing Association Public Relations office at Elmont, New York. His autobiography is Guess I'm Lucky: My Life in Horseracing (1976). Numerous books about the racing industry mention Stephens; Cliff Guilliams, Final Calls to Absent Friends (2001), is praised by his widow. Articles including Dan Farley, "Woody," Thoroughbred Record (11 Nov. 1981); David Schmitz, "A Handful of Belmonts," Blood-Horse (29 Aug. 1998); "Still Chipping Away," Backstretch (Feb. 1991); and Cliff Guilliams, "Love of the Horse Fueled Legend's Long Career," Daily Racing Form, (27 Sept. 1997); give insight into his career. An obituary is in the New York Times (23 Aug. 1998).

Joan Goodbody