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Woody Stephens (Sept. 1, 1913-Aug. 22, 1998)
Hall of Fame trainer of five straight Belmont Stakes winners
"The stately old pleasure dome on Long Island had never witnessed a spectacle quite like it. Moments
after an 8-1 shot named Danzig Connection swept to victory in the 1986 Belmont Stakes, the colt's
72-year-old trainer, Woody Stephens, floated, on mounting waves of sound, toward the winner's
circle at Belmont Park. Stephens had just won an unprecedented fifth straight Belmont, and as he
made his way past the blue bloods in the box seats, you could hear the tribute building among the blue
collars in the grandstand below, a murmur and then a chant rising louder and louder: 'Wood-dee!
Wood-dee!' Of all the cherished memories from more than 30 years at Belmont, my warmest is of
that June afternoon, of the inimitable Woody moving with that swagger through the crowds.
Woodford Cefis Stephens had earned the ultimate benediction -- the unequivocal adulation of the
New York player. "
—William Nack, Sports Illustrated, August 31, 1998Photo by AP
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