Page 35 - NMHBA Spring 2021

Don Stover and jockeys from the Downs at Albuquerque dress in silks and visit the children’s ward at the University of New Mexico Hospital.
“I’m just an old dog that loves Jesus,” he says. “He changed my life and uses me to help others. I’m a nobody trying to
help somebody.”
His work does not go unnoticed.
Six years ago Kenny Smith, a Hobbs businessman and longtime friend and supporter of Stover’s chapel, passed away. Last Spring, Smith’s granddaughter, Keli Hatley went to see Stover and handed him the keys to a 2018 SUV that had less than 35,000 miles on it. She had purchased the vehicle just months earlier.
Keli told the chaplain it was her way of showing appreciation for Stover’s friendship with her grandfather. Besides, says Hatley, “That’s what God told me to do.”
The gifted van meant Stover no longer had to drive his old Buick that had logged more than 245,000 miles.
Stover, who turned 66 last August, grew up in Rison, Arkansas, a town of about 1,200 residents. His father Herbert Dewey (H.D.) Stover worked at the local sawmill. His mom Mabel was a housewife.
Stover was a good athlete from a young age. Early on he played baseball and football and was good at both sports. But by the time
he got to high school, “everybody had gotten bigger than me.”
No problem. By that time, he had discovered horses. “I knew I was going to be a jockey,” he says.
He started out like so many--riding match races at bush tracks. At age 18 he got his jockey’s license and rode his first race at Sportsman Park in Chicago. Success was almost immediate. He won several of what were considered big money races in those days--The Pucker Up and The Diplomat Way at Arlington, The Special Goddess at Sportsman’s Park.
“I rode with him and against him,” says Day. “He was a very astute horseman (but) he never got the opportunity to really show how good a rider he was. He made the most of his opportunities.”
Stover’s career seemed destined for bigger things.
In 1975 he rode Elocutionist when the future Preakness Stakes winner won his first two races at Hawthorne as a two year old. “He won by 10 and 11 lengths,” says
the chaplain.
But just as quickly, his life and career spiraled out of control. He was taken off Elocutionist just as the colt was starting to
show his potential. During his sensational three-year-old season, Elocutionist’s regular rider was John Lively.
Besides his win in the Preakness in 1976, Elocutionist ran third in the Kentucky Derby after winning the Arkansas Derby. He missed the Belmont Stakes after suffering an injury and was retired after 12 starts in which he never ran out of the money.
Stovers problems started when he began “experimenting” with drugs.
He says he went through an emotional downward spiral after losing the ride on Elocutionist. “I could use that as an excuse, but I think maybe I just wanted to use drugs.”
Stover says he started out using amphetamines to keep his weight down then moved on to stronger drugs, including cocaine. The chaser was alcohol.
“I got in with the wrong crowd and went the wrong way,” he says. “Drugs, alcohol, I did a lot of bad things.”
The bad company and bad decisions eventually killed his career. He was done at age 39 and by then he’d been ruled off twice.
“Two different times I got ruled off every racetrack,” says Stover. “I couldn’t learn the first time. I had to go back and do it again.”
Stover is the racetrack chaplain at Sunland Park, Zia Park & the Downs at Albuquerque, providing weekly prayer services for backside employees and their families.
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© Michael Cusortelli