First Mount A Winning One For Christopher Elliott, Son Of Jockey Stewart Elliott

Lone Star Park track announcer Jim Byers said, "First time is the charm for Christopher Elliott," as Ru More Starter crossed the finish line 3 3/4 lengths in front in the third race at the Grand Prairie, Texas, track on April 21.

Elliott, the 18-year-old son of veteran jockey Stewart Elliott, made his first ride a winning one – a rarity among apprentice jockeys. Elliott had been given a leg up by trainer Terry Eoff on the Texas-bred gelding in the five-furlong race for $7,500 claimers.

"It was something else, it really was," said Elliott, who turned 18 years old two days earlier on April 19.

Elliott, who is completing his high school education by taking on-line classes, began galloping horses for trainer Sarah Davidson at Sam Houston Race Park last year. "She got me started," he said. Scott Hare, who handles Stewart Elliott's book, is agent for Christopher, too. The youngster weighs in at 108 pounds.

Elliott said he really didn't think about riding until he was 13 or 14 years old. "My dad was riding at Del Mar and I saw him win a stakes race there," he remembered. "It really opened up my mind."

His father, a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award and Avelino Gomez Memorial Award winner who has 5,671 wins and is best remembered as regular rider for Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Smarty Jones.  There are jockeys on his mother Lilibeth's side of the family, too. Her brother is Richard Bracho, who has recorded 559 career victories.

In his initial ride, Elliott broke well from the No. 2 post, then tracked behind early leader Alphabet Adams for the opening quarter mile. Instead of going around that rival, Elliott pushed Ru Mor Starter through a narrow opening along the rail on the turn, took command in upper stretch and opened up in the final furlong. The fifth betting choice in a field of seven Ru More Starter paid $15.40 to win.

"At the half mile pole, I looked at the three (Alphabet Adams) and saw him getting out pretty bad," Elliott said. "Going around the turn I found room along the rail — not much but enough. It just happened to work out."

Did he get any feedback from his father?

"He said I did a good job," said the younger Elliott, who will be competing against his father for the first time April 27 in the eighth race at Lone Star Park, when Stewart Elliott rides Lithe Spirit for Steve Asmussen and Christopher will be aboard Climb to Glory for Paul Pearson.

Following his win (he finished fourth in a subsequent mount April 21), Elliott was "welcomed" to the jockey colony by fellow riders who bathed him with water buckets and shaving cream. "The jocks all went crazy," he said.