At 51, Elliott Hunting for More

Stewart Elliott climbed up a tree and perched there for a perfect hunting spot. That was in 2015, when he didn't ride a single race, but rather, spent the year hunting whitetail deer from treetops in the woods of Central Kentucky.

“I'm a big bow hunter, actually,” Elliott commented this weekend at Los Alamitos, where he won his first jockey title since topping the jockey standings at the Meadowlands in 2004.

Elliott is currently enjoying newfound success on the Southern California racing circuit. The 51-year-old veteran journeyman jockey best known for riding Smarty Jones to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness S. in 2004, won 12 races at Los Alamitos's twelve-day meet this September, two wins clear of Santiago Gonzalez.

“We've been working really hard, my agent Mark North has been doing a great job, and I'm starting to ride for a lot of different trainers–everybody is giving us a chance,” Elliott said.

In the summer of 2014, looking to revitalize his career, Elliott moved his riding tack to Southern California, to Del Mar's seaside oval, where he began to network with trainers like Bob Baffert. Things were going pretty well, until he was kicked by a horse in the stable area, injuring his ribs. Elliott left the West Coast and rode at Keeneland that following fall, but looking back, Elliott said it was too early to return, citing that his ribs were still bothering him.

“So I decided to take a break from riding for a while,” Elliott said. “I got into another business for trainer Tevis McCauley, who owns Whitetail Heaven Outfitters, it's a deer hunting operation–he bought another lodge in Kentucky and I got into partners with him on that.”

Elliott bonded with McCauley over their shared passion for the outdoors, while riding horses for the trainer during that fall meet at Keeneland in 2014. Although McCauley still has a small barn of horses he trains at Keeneland, the Kentucky native's main focus now is on his deer lodge, located in Nicholasville, about 23 miles away from Keeneland.

“This region of the U.S. has become the hottest destination in the world to hunt whitetail deer,” McCauley said. “Stewart [Elliott] had some extra time in 2015, so he decided to invest some money in our company.”

Elliott subsequently sold his 20-acre farm in New Jersey and moved out permanently to Kentucky. At Whitetail Heaven Outfitters, Elliott took on a number of odd jobs, including putting out deer feed and checking hunting trail cameras. McCauley's deer operation, among other services, provides guided hunting trips to clients.

“Stewart guided a lot of the hunters because Stewart is really good with people; he's a really likeable guy, and of course, being that he won the Kentucky Derby, his nickname around the camp was 'Derby'”

Added McCauley, “As a matter of fact, we had visited a farmer to buy [deer] feed from him and the farmer recognized Stewart from winning the Kentucky Derby on Smarty Jones. He went into his house and pulled out a picture of Smarty Jones for Stewart to sign.”

It seemed that even on the hunting trails, Elliott could not escape his riding fame, but he quickly became known for another talent–tree climbing.

“One day, we were trying to hang a tree stand, where you hunt out of to take a deer,” McCauley said. “Whenever you hang a deer stand in a tree, you always have to saw some tree limbs. Stewart got out a little hand saw and climbed up the tree about 25 to 30 feet to saw off that limb. He shimmied up that tree like a squirrel.”

As much fun as hunting was for Elliott, something was tugging at him to return to riding. Elliott was in Kentucky when he saw American Pharoah win the Triple Crown in 2015. Thoughts from his run in the Triple Crown in 2004 came flooding back, when, as Tom Durkin called it, “Smarty Jones was valiant but vanquished, finishing second.”

Asked about how he got over losing that momentous race in the Belmont Stakes aboard Smarty Jones, who was trying to become the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 26 years, Elliott simply talked about how grateful he was to be in that position in the first place.

“You just have to go on,” Elliott said. “You just go about business as usual. I just appreciate everything I got out of that experience. I remember before the Arkansas Derby that year I was saying 'this could be my first million dollar race,' hoping to win that one. And then we got to the Derby and Preakness and won those. I'm just thankful that we had a great run to go as far as we did.”

Back in the irons at the start of 2016 at Santa Anita, Elliott began working horses for the Baffert barn, hoping to capture some of the residual afterglow of American Pharoah's glory.

“Eventually something came open; [Baffert] gave me something to ride,” Elliott said. “Actually, the first mount was here at Los Alamitos and the horse won.”

Elliott began riding horses for Baffert regularly, riding numerous winners for the Hall-of-Famer this past summer at Del Mar, including American Pharoah's sister, American Cleopatra (Pioneerof the Nile), in her maiden victory.

“I worked her back the other day,” Elliott said of American Cleopatra. “There are so many nice horses over there [at the Baffert Barn]. I've been breezing some new ones that are pretty nice too.”

Baffert is, in fact, a big Stewart Elliott fan.

“He is the nicest guy, just really pleasant to work with,” Baffert said of Elliott. “He really enjoys what he does and he's very easy going.”

Added Baffert, “Stewart is great with young horses, and extremely sharp out of the starting gate. His horses run for him and he's really helped me out. He is very talented and I think he's a very underrated rider.”

Elliott has backed up those sentiments at the Los Alamitos Thoroughbred meet this month, winning seven of the first 18 races carded at the meet. He won three races on both the Sept. 8 and Sept 11 cards. Elliott's 2016 total earnings currently stand at $1,825,281 from 345 starts and 48 wins.

But this isn't the first time Elliott has enjoyed a hot streak. Besides his stellar year in 2004 with Smarty Jones, Elliott rode a freakish six consecutive winners, and just missed a seventh, on March 18, 1990, at the recently defunct Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire.

Born in Toronto, Canada, Elliott was inducted into the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame last year. He comes from a racing family. His father, Dennis, was a jockey for 23 years and his mother, Myhill, was an assistant trainer at Woodbine. The family moved to New Jersey in the 1970s and Elliott started his jockey career in 1981 at the age of 16, riding at Mid Atlantic tracks like Keystone, Delaware Park and Suffolk Downs.

In 2004, the then 39-year-old told the Daily Racing Form that he anticipated riding for another seven years, putting him at retirement in 2011. But Elliott is still here, riding seemingly at the top of his game. At 51, Elliott now says that he sees himself riding for another three or four years and has high hopes for the upcoming Santa Anita meet.

“You got to go by how you feel and how your business is,” Elliott commented. “I feel good. I jog, I try to take care of myself, eat right, try to get to sleep early every night.”

When asked about winning the Los Alamitos meet title, Elliot added, “It's great, you know, that's what we work for, we get up early every morning and work horses. It shows that things are paying off.”

Keeping tabs on Elliott back in Kentucky is his hunting buddy Tevis McCauley.

“There's not a more deserving person in the world to win that title than Stewart,” McCauley said. “He's a hardworking, honest, good person and I'm super excited for him.”