Elliott Ready for Derby Run

They’ve been making the trek into the dense woods of central Pennsylvania for years, yet this late-December hunting trip was different for jockey Stewart Elliott and trainer John Servis.

“Stew was sitting there in the car, staring into space and he just says, ‘Geez, I won the Kentucky Derby!”’ Servis said. “I told him, ‘It’s OK, I do it all the time.”’

“And then we laughed,” Elliott recalled.

Nearly 10 months after riding Smarty Jones to an exhilarating victory in America’s greatest race, Elliott is still laughing but finding it hard to grasp his newfound fame and small fortune.

“It’s all unbelievable,” Elliott said with a smile as he waited in the jocks’ room between races at Aqueduct earlier this week. “I look back at it, and I still can’t believe it really happened.”

A journeyman jockey virtually unknown outside Philadelphia Park, Elliott was taken for the ride of a lifetime by Smarty Jones. The unsung colt from Pennsylvania captured racing’s fancy, adding the Preakness to his Derby win before falling a heartbreaking length short at the Belmont in his bid to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Now, Elliott has a chance for a repeat performance aboard another 3-year-old colt trained by Servis, Rockport Harbor.

“I’m trying not to get too far ahead with anything,” Elliott said. “But it’s just incredible we have another good horse that could be in the Derby.”

Like Smarty Jones, Rockport Harbor will hit the Derby trail in Arkansas with an unbeaten record. If “Rocky,” as he’s known around the barn, wins his next two starts -- the Rebel on March 19 and the Arkansas Derby on April 16 -- he’ll go into the May 7 Kentucky Derby with the same 6-for-6 record as Smarty.

Elliott seems oblivious to all the comparisons. He’s still the friendly, laid-back, accommodating “same old Stew” he was before winning the Derby, Servis said. “His approach hasn’t changed. He works hard every single day.”

But there have been significant changes in his life since the Triple Crown. He has a new girlfriend, a new agent, a new track he calls home and a “nice nest egg” for retirement.

He’s also picking up a lot more frequent flier miles. Since the Triple Crown, Elliott has made trips to his native Canada to ride in the Queen’s Plate at Woodbine; to his boyhood home in Hong Kong to ride in an International Jockey Challenge, and to Los Angeles for the first time to attend the Eclipse Awards.

None of those ventures produced winning results, but Elliott, who turns 40 on March 1, takes it all in stride. So what if he was last aboard Long Pond in the Queen’s Plate, last in the jockey standings in the Hong Kong event and Smarty Jones lost out to Ghostzapper for Horse of the Year at the Eclipse Awards?

“Without Smarty, I would never have had the chance to do any of those things,” he said. “I owe it all to him.”

Smarty Jones provided more than travel opportunities for Elliott. The horse earned more than $7.5 million for owners Pat and Roy Chapman, with Elliott’s total take -- counting a sponsorship deal on Belmont Stakes day -- about $750,000. He also ranked fourth in purse earnings last year at $14,533,060. He won 262 races, and his 1,363 mounts finished in the money nearly 48 percent of the time.

He’s moved his tack to Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J., where he was the third-leading rider with purse earnings of nearly $3 million. Then he rode at the Meadowlands, and now is beginning to find a winning groove at the Big A. Last week, he had his first three-win day of the meet, and had 25 wins through Feb. 14.

He’s the regular rider for Servis, but also rides for other top trainers such as Todd Pletcher and Steve Asmussen.

“Stew’s just so laid back and never gets flustered,” new agent Joe Rosen said. “Trainers aren’t hesitant to call us.”

Finally, after nearly a quarter-century of toiling at small tracks in the Northeast, Elliott is riding in the biggest events. It’s about time, said Servis, who first met Elliott in the early 1980s.

“He’s had so many opportunities in the past that didn’t materialize,” Servis said. “This time, he’s taking full advantage of it. He’s going full bore, and every move he makes has been the right move, on and off the track.”

When questions arose last year whether Elliott would get dumped before the Derby in favor of a big-name rider like Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey, Servis stuck by his friend. He told the Chapmans a change was not necessary, and that was that.

“Look, when Stewy was riding in those cheap claiming races at Philly for me, I used to think how lucky I was to have him,” Servis said. “We have confidence in each other.”

Elliott really need support after the Derby, when a guilty plea on assault charges from 2001 became public followed by his admission he abused alcohol. But Elliott confronted his problems, and said he was glad the truth came out.

“I was relieved, it’s made me a better person,” Elliott said. “I’m living a sober life. Finally, no more secrets.”

Then came those final, fateful yards at the end of the Belmont, when Smarty Jones faded and Birdstone flew past him at the finish. While Elliott was roundly criticized for a poor ride, he simply says Smarty Jones ran out of gas.

“I knew we were beat,” he said, closing his eyes and shaking his head side-to-side. “We came so close.”

Which is why Elliott can’t wait to climb aboard Rockport Harbor next month and find out what kind of Derby contender he’s sitting on.

“We’ve got a great shot at doing it again,” he said, “and hopefully it will work out.”