ELLIOTT HEALED AND READY TO DEFEND HIS RIDING TITLE AT REMINGTON PARK
Kentucky Derby-winning jockey Stewart Elliott returns to Remington Park as the defending leading rider from the previous race meet for the first time.
In 2023, Elliott’s fifth season at Remington Park, he ran away with the top jockey honors. His 74 triumphs blew away the field as Lindey Wade checked in second with 46 trips to the winner’s circle. Oddly enough, Elliott had not been leading rider in his previous four years at Remington Park. This trophy was special to him despite winning more riding titles back East than he can count.
“It was because I’d never won this one before and winning the Oklahoma Derby,” Elliott said.
He won that Grade 3, $400,000 derby aboard How Did He Do That for 18-time title holder at Remington Park and the winningest trainer in North American thoroughbred horse racing history, Steve Asmussen. Elliott did it and had racing fans citing the horse’s name after the race because the 3-year-old colt was sent off at 44-1 odds. How Did He Do That won a three-horse photo for the victory, beating stablemate Red Route One (5-1) by a nose. Tumbarumba (6-1) was another nose back. The Derby’s 4-5 favorite Hit Show could finish no better than sixth for nationally-acclaimed trainer Brad Cox.
Asked if he really thought How Did He Do That really had a chance before the running of the Oklahoma Derby, Elliott was succinct and to the obvious point with his answer.
“When you ride for Steve Asmussen, you always have a chance,” he said.
When Elliott rides his first official race this meet, which begins Friday, Aug. 16, it will be the first time he has been in the saddle to compete since he was injured at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, when a 2-year-old flipped on him as they were coming on the racetrack for a race. Elliott has been working horses in the morning after healing from a hairline injury to his sacrum, a triangular bone that forms the base of the spine and the center of the pelvis.
“I’m 100 percent,” Elliott said. “The doctor released me at Lone Star (after three months). I would have ridden there again, but the meet was over.”
Stewart, now 59 and making his home with his wife of 20 years, Lilibeth, in Kentucky, is thrilled to be back in Oklahoma City, where one of their favorite restaurants is Gabriela’s in Edmond. He and Lilibeth met in Kentucky when Elliott was riding against her brother, Richard Bracho.
“I knew right away she was the one,” Elliott said.
Elliott also doesn’t mind returning to a track where he was the top stakes-winning rider last year with six trips to the winner’s circle in black-type races, seven if you count the Oklahoma Classics Filly & Mare Starter Allowance Stakes aboard Canada Candy. Other than How Did He Do That, Elliott’s other stakes winners included Tap the Dot in the Red Earth, Medalla Match for trainer Michael Biehler in the Ran Ricks Memorial, Sunlit Song for trainer Mindy Willis in the Remington Green, Run Slewpy Run for trainer Jayde Gelner in the Oklahoma Classics Turf Handicap, and with Fly to the Bank for trainer Steve Martin in the Silver Goblin.
“I had no idea I had the most stakes wins,” Elliott said. “My agent Scott (Hare) just puts me on them and I ride. He does a fantastic job.”
One question Elliott gets asked a lot is whether his son Christopher, 18, will be riding against him at Remington Park.
“No, he is getting a lot of mounts back East and can ride seven days a week with several different tracks open up there as opposed to only four days a week at Remington Park,” he said.
Christopher began his riding career at Lone Star Park on April 21 this year and Dad was ready to give him some pointers after the race, but that wasn’t necessary. He won with Ru Mor Starter in a maiden claiming race.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” said Stewart. “He rode that horse perfectly. I didn’t have to tell him anything. He was very patient on the rail and when it was time to move he stayed on the rail and won. Very impressive.”
Christopher moved his tack to Monmouth Park in New Jersey and rides some at PARX in Philadelphia.
Stewart is most prominently known for his Kentucky Derby victory in 2004 with Smarty Jones. He also won the Preakness aboard that colt by 11-1/2 lengths and was going for the Triple Crown when Birdstone upset the apple cart in the Belmont Stakes at 36-1 odds, running down Smarty Jones in the stretch, beating him by one length.
Stewart said in his riding career that started in 1981, he is lucky he hasn’t had worse injuries than he has had – partially collapsed lung, six broken ribs, three broken collarbones, all in separate spills on the track.
“I tried to retire in 2015 when I broke my ribs in California,” he said. “I love the outdoors, love to hunt and fish, so I went into business with a trainer friend of mine who had a lodge.”
Elliott went back to California after his ribs healed, however, and won a stakes race almost immediately. He was hooked again and here he is back for more. He will likely be back aboard 9-year-old Sunlit Song for Willis to defend his Remington Green Stakes. It’s unclear which old-timer will retire first, Sunlit Song or Elliott.
“Hmm, I really don’t know,” he said, after pondering the question a minute.
Elliott has come a long way in his career and has traveled as much as just about any of his peers. He was born in Toronto, Canada, and then moved to Hong Kong at 6 or 7 years of age where his father Dennis was riding as a jockey. Elliott has ridden in virtually every Eastern racing state in his career, along with Kentucky, California, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and countless others. When he finally does hang it up, might we find him in the woods, hunting down prey?
“More likely at the lake, relaxing,” he said with a laugh.
WORKOUTS (Tuesday, August 6)
4 furlongs
Today’s bullet worker at a half mile was 3-year-old gelding Paynt Ball, who covered the distance in :47.29 handily for trainer C.R. Trout and owner-breeder Michael D. Major. When the Oklahoma-bred gelded son of Paynter, out of the Maria’s Mon mare She’s Picky, is entered in a race this meet at Remington Park, it will be the first race of his career.
Tuesday works took place on a fast track, under sunny skies with temperatures ranging from the mid-70s to mid-80s.
Remington Park has provided more than $357 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. The 2024 Thoroughbred Season will begin on August 16. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.
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