CJS Press Box

First-year journeyman Christopher Elliott raced twice last Friday the 13th — a superstitious day  that’s notorious for bringing bad luck… the little devil came first in both. 19-year old Elliott has seen a promising start to his career as a jockey: he was a finalist for the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice in 2024, concluding his apprenticeship and earning the title of journeyman, and in 2025 he was placed 54th out of over 1,000 jockeys in a ranking of wins.  

He showed a preternatural versatility by adapting to two very different horses: 8-year old veteran mare Whistler’s Style, and 4-year old gelding Solo Dancing.  Race 6 Elliott saw a slow start in the first quarter mile, spending half of the race four lengths behind the others, passing them all in the last quarter to secure first place for Whistler’s Style. Race 8, Solo Dancing raced the inside track and won the race by a nose, despite average starting odds of 4.59. 

Christopher Elliott is a legacy jockey — his father is the nationally prominent Stewart Elliott, who has won over 5,800 races in his career. In 2004, Stewart Elliott was the first jockey in 25 years to win the Kentucky Derby in his first race. In his son’s humble words, “my dad also rides.” Elliott doesn’t remember what he wanted to do before he decided to be a jockey.  “It’s been my life since I was a little boy,” Elliott explained, “You know, my dad’s been riding  for 40 years now, and I grew up coming to the races.” 

To Elliott, “the horses are everything.” 

Elliott moved out of his parents’ house in Texas when he was 18 to move to New York City and pursue his dreams: it’s a common tale. What’s less common are his particular circumstances: Elliott lives  in Belmont, Queens, home to the other race track which he races at, with his agent Jose  Santos Jr. 

He wakes up at 5:30 am to start his workout by 6, and the rest of the  morning is spent “working” 3 or 4 horses — preparing them for the race. “The horses work half a mile, or like three-eighths of a mile just to get fit for the race,” Elliott explained. Sometimes, Elliott listens to music while on the horse — but only if the horse will allow it. His favorite musician  right now is Bad Bunny — he listens to a lot of Spanish music. Elliott is also fluent in Spanish, as his mother is from Venezuela. 

Outside of horseracing, he doesn’t have much time for much else — especially not enough  time to play basketball, which is his other favorite sport. Elliott used to be a Cleveland Cavaliers guy, but  now his team is the Milwaukee Bucks. In an alternate universe, if Elliott wasn’t a jockey, he  says he would’ve liked to be a basketball player. “But the height, you know, didn’t have me.” 

Elliott is 19 years old, 5’4, and a tight 110 pounds. He stays that way by watching what he eats, and never “going overboard.” His favorite food is “probably steak.” He says he can eat  all sorts of things, just as long as he keeps the portions small.  

Under his jockey silks, a small silver chain peeks out. It’s a necklace given to Elliott by his maternal grandmother — a round black stone encased in a metal frame. “It’s from Spain,” Elliott said, “She said it was, like, for good luck or whatever,  so.”  

It works! 

“It works,” Elliott joked. “I wear it everyday.”

In many of his races, the horse starts out last and then catches up and surpasses the others in  the final stretch. Is this Elliott’s modus operandi?  

According to him, his only modus operandi is to surrender control and let the horse do its thing.  

“You will never win against it, it’s stronger than you,” Elliott said, sagely, “you got to let them tell you what they want to do.” 

“ But you just try to stay out of their way as much as possible.” 

To prepare for a race, Elliott watches the replays of the horses to intuitively figure out what to  expect when he’s on the track. In the replays of Whistler’s Style’s old races, Elliott noticed a pattern: “I’ve seen that every race she’s always last, and then she makes a big run,” He  recalled, “so, I already know that she’s going to break slow, and then take her time, and just build up. And that’s what she did… I just didn’t ask her until she started taking me, and that was it.” 

After the Eighth race at the Aqueduct, Elliott will board a flight to Louisiana to race a horse  that is a runner-up in the prep races for the Kentucky Derby. “I’ll go home, pick up some things… I land there at like, one in the morning– I’ll just get to the Airbnb, sleep, and then go ride.” 

In Elliott’s own words, being a jockey is not easy…. “It’s a lot of ups and downs, but winning is the greatest thing.”