Elliott likely to be aboard Gray Attempt in Arkansas Derby
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Trainer Jinks Fires said Tuesday jockey Stewart Elliott will likely ride Gray Attempt in the Grade 1, $1 million Arkansas Derby on April 13 with the horse’s last-race rider, Jon Court, committed to Long Range Toddy.
Court was aboard Gray Attempt for a victory Saturday in the $125,000 Gazebo Stakes at Oaklawn. He was subbing for Shaun Bridgmohan, the regular rider of Gray Attempt who is recovering from injury. The Gazebo came a week after Court won a division of the Grade 2, $750,000 Rebel at Oaklawn with Long Range Toddy.
“Jon will be on the other horse,” Fires said. “He’s already earned enough points to get in the Kentucky Derby. Ours hasn’t, so they’re committed to ride him and they need to ride him and we understand that. We talked about that already.”
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Elliott, who is based at Oaklawn, won the Arkansas Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2004 with Smarty Jones.
“I know he’s a smart rider,” Fires said, “and to get this horse to the right point where he needs to be, you’ve got to have a good rider, a rider that’s heady. You’ve got to have somebody who knows pace.”
Gray Attempt – who won the Smarty Jones Stakes in January at Oaklawn to pick up 10 points for the Kentucky Derby – cut back to six furlongs for the Gazebo and won the race by 3 ¼ lengths in a dazzling 1:09.72. He earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 90.
“He ran big time,” Fires said Tuesday. “We were very pleased with his race. He did it like you wanted to see. It was a very good effort.”
Fires had intended to run Gray Attempt in the Rebel, but the horse came out of an 11th-place finish in the Southwest with some soreness in his back end after a scuffle in the first turn of the race. Fires said Gray Attempt lost training time and, consequently, ran in the Gazebo.
“He deserves the opportunity to go long again,” Fires said of targeting the Arkansas Derby.
Gray Attempt returned to the track Tuesday for the first time since the Gazebo and was full of himself, kicking up his heels as he jogged a mile.
“He was feeling good,” said Fires.
Gray Attempt is a three-time stakes winner for owner Dwight Pruett. The horse is by Graydar.
