Stewart Elliott Should Go Back to Philly

[garyoz]

He can't ride with the New York jocks even in Winter. He keeps getting good mounts but he's only capable of making one run and has no judgement of pace. I have no idea why anyone would ride him.

[cj]

His start to the meet was bad, but he's won a few lately.

[garyoz]

Five for 67. Problem is he gets some good mounts so you have to consider using him in some Pick 4's and 6's. He looked terrible in the 5th today on the 7/5 favorite. Cost me the Pick 4, which is why I was hot.

[DeoVolente]

Give Elliott a break he is a good jock, as capable as any rider in New York right now. He received criticism for his Belmont ride when in fact the criticism should have gone to the trainer for not getting another work into Smarty!

[garyoz]

I'm not saying anything about the Belmont ride, SJ was bound to wind down (I have my own suspicions about Servis' training "magic"--I'm glad the colt made it through all his drug tests).

Elliot as good as Migliore, Berajano, even Arroyo or Luzzi? If you've been watching this Winter, that's a stretch. I think you'll see that as the meet progresses he won't get live mounts from trainers like Levine, or even some of the Jersey trainers shipping in. Cannot understand why Assmussen uses him. Elliott isn't even as good as Chuck C. Lopez who used to ride the inner. Please call it to my attention the next time you see a brilliant or even strategic ride from Elliott. I'll be happy to give him profs. IMHO he rides every race as if he is on one run plodders.

[RXB]

He will go back to Philly-- as soon as the purse increases start kicking in big-time from the slots revenues.

In the interim, he'll be hard-pressed to hit 10% winners at Aqueduct. Migliore, Bejarano, Gryder, Fragoso, Luzzi, Bridgmohan, Arroyo, and Pimentel are all clearly superior riders in comparison to Elliott.

[Buckeye]

Only appreciates the Great horse he rode.

Ron Franklin and the Bid, Mr. nobody and H.O.Y 2004.

Thank you Suff for the Smarty's in Love link.

[DeoVolente]

I saw Stewart Elliott ride several horses here on
Maryland Million Day. I was not impressed one way or
the other. He went to the front right away with
almost every horse. He won 2, once with Presidential
Affair who so far out classed the rest of the field it
was ridiculous, and once with a long shot surprise.
He lost a couple with horses that probably should've
have won too. He's a good jockey, not a great jockey.
There are many out there much worse. And several who
are better. I'd say Migliore and Berajano are
definitely better. I am wondering too about this
ability to strategize. Have you got an example? But
what really says it all is Elliott's win % is a
whopping 8.86%

[timtam]

I guess you'd rather have Diane Nelson

[cj]

He certainly looked good on DeFrancis Dash day when I was there, especially guiding home the winner of the DeFrancis, Wildcat Heir.

[garyoz]

I guess you'd rather have Diane Nelson

Elliott's skill level should get him about the same amount of mounts as Nelson. Let's see, Elliott is winning at a rate below that of Alan Garcia and about the same as Oscar Gomez. And who is on the better stock?

Elliott again has some reasonable mounts today (01/01). My point is that you can almost always toss a Nelson horse, but for some reason (post triple crown hype? a good agent?) Elliott gets good mounts and then screws up. Winning at 8% on 80+ mounts at AquI, even a broken clock is right twice a day--maybe he'll win today.

The guy does not appear to adapt his riding style to the race or the horse. He is no 20 percent winning rider unless he is on the minor circuits--and even then I don't know how he does it.

[cj]

How do you explain him beating Prado by a head once and a neck once on DeFrancis day? One was the favorite, but the other at 16-1 while Prado was on favored Midas Eyes. He's better than you are giving him credit for, he just started out very cold.

I'm not trying to say he's one of the best, but you are going a little overboard.

[nmhusker]

Bejarano is the best in NY right now. At the end of this year I believe he will be the best in the country

[TOOZ]

Aqueduct's inner preaches speed and stay inside. Hard to tell anyone's ability by that meet.

[garyoz]

Don't agree with the idea that less skill is involved in the Aqu inner. There is far more opportunity to get into trouble than on the main or at Belmont. Also the inner track IMO is less speed biased than MTH or MED or GP historically. You could also make the same claim about the SoCal tracks being speed biased. Watch the races or look at the charts, if all you had to do is break on top and go to the rail the races look much different.

[andicap]

In some of the races I've seen Elliott has had trouble getting out of the gate -- a vital move on the inner dirt. But he may have gotten better or I just saw his worst races.

His ride on Time to Rap last week was terrible -- cost me an exacta.