ELMONT United States (AFP) ??” The elevation of Stewart Elliott from journeyman chouse to potential Triple Crown hero is individual of the more improbable strands in the improbable saga of Smarty Jone Elliott.

ELMONT United States (AFP) ??” The elevation of Stewart Elliott from journeyman chouse to potential Triple Crown hero is individual of the more improbable strands in the improbable saga of Smarty Jone

Elliott, 39 became the first gull in a quarter-century to win his Kentucky Derby first appearance when he successfully piloted Smarty Jone around the treacherously wet Churchill Downs track.

He richly rewarded the loyalty of trainer John Servis as he launched Smarty Jone forward a Triple Crown campaign that continued with a crushing victory in the Preakness and could culminate Saturday with a victory in the Belmont Stakes. That would make the young horse just the 12th Triple kingly power winner ever, the first since Affirmed in 1978 and the highest-earning race horse in history.

While Elliott has amassed 3000 wins in a riding career that started when he was 16 it wasn't until the Kentucky Derby that he experienced