Jockey Elliott 'making hay' toward a major career milestone
For jockey Stewart
Elliott, it’s the drive to five – as in 5,000.
Thirty-five riders in North American history have reached 5,000 career victories.
Elliott ranked 37th in North American history for victories and
55th in purse earnings ($104,661,034) as the new racing week began at Oaklawn.
In 2017, Elliott won the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which
is presented annually to a rider who demonstrates high personal and
professional conduct. Elliott came to national prominence in 2004 as the jockey
of Smarty Jones, who swept Oaklawn’s Southwest Stakes, Rebel Stakes and
Arkansas Derby before winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, the first two
legs of the Triple Crown
Now, Elliott is chasing personal glory again.
A Toronto native, Elliott rode his first winner in 1981. Elliott’s career
peaked in 2004 when, boosted by the success of Smarty Jones, he rode 262
winners and ranked fourth nationally in purse earnings with a career-high
$14,533,061. Following a stint in Southern California, Elliott relocated to the
Midwest before the 2019 Oaklawn meeting. Elliott rode 24 winners last year at
Oaklawn and had nine at this year’s meet through Sunday.
Encouraged by his agent, Scott Hare, Elliott began riding at Sam Houston on
Oaklawn’s dark days earlier this month and made an impact with 13 victories
from 30 mounts before the track canceled its final four days of racing because
of the coronavirus outbreak. All 13 wins came for Hall of Fame trainer Steve
Asmussen.
“I was at Remington before I came here and I had a real good meet,” Elliott
said. “Then we come over and I’m doing OK. But a lot of my people don’t have
the same amount of horses. I guess Steve had asked my agent if we were going to
Lone Star, which we had planned on doing. Scott asked me if I wanted to go over
to Sam Houston for a couple of days. It was working out really good – while it
lasted.”
Elliott called riding at Sam Houston a “good thing” and said he plans to ride
regularly at another Texas venue, Lone Star in suburban Dallas, after the
Oaklawn meeting ends. Elliott has maintained a heavy workload since the early
1990s, except 2015 when he quit riding to invest in a deer camp.
“I thought I could I get into another business because I can’t do this
forever,” Elliott said. “I thought: ‘What am I going to do when this is done?’
Was off for about a year for that and it makes me realize that I don’t know
what I’m going to do, really, after I’m riding. As long as you feel like your
ability is there, and your business is good enough, keep going. This time when
it’s over, it’s over. When you’re 20, you can always come back. When you’re 55,
you can’t come back.”