Jockey Elliott attempts comeback at Santa Anita

ARCADIA, Calif. - Jockey Stewart Elliott, best known for winning the 2004 Kentucky Derby on Smarty Jones, resumes riding for the first time since October 2014 on Speed Saver in Thursday’s first race at Santa Anita.

Speed Saver is part of a field of seven in a $50,000 claimer for maidens at 6 1/2 furlongs.

Elliott, 50, sustained a rib injury at Del Mar in August 2014, and rode at Keeneland that fall. He did not ride in 2015. Last year, Elliott said he was in business with trainer Tevis McCauley on a deer lodge property in Kentucky.

Elliott has been working horses at Santa Anita in recent weeks in preparation for a comeback. This will be the first time he has ridden in Southern California since the summer of 2014. During that time, he won the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on Skyway before being injured.

“I’ve always liked it here and I just started to meet people here when I got hurt,” he said. “I wondered what would have happened.”