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Pick Pony | Nov. 1, 2024, 6:21 p.m.
In the final race, Elliott’s mount Keraunos trailed Magna Tap until the last moment, winning by a nose. This victory marked Elliott’s third win, reinforcing his lead in the jockey standings for the Pat Steinberg trophy. Remarkably, he achieves this after fracturing a bone in his lower back last summer.
Last year, Elliott won 74 times, finishing a block ahead of runner-up Lindey Wade with 46 wins. This year, Elliott has 62 wins, while Floyd Wethey, Jr. follows with 37. Jose Alvarez’s two victories on Thursday tied him for fourth with Harry Hernandez at 32 wins each.
In the 10th race Thursday, Elliott used Keraunos’ tactical speed, stalking third behind pacesetter E d’Oro and Code Jorgie. Magna Tap trailed in fifth. Both horses passed E d’Oro at the top of the stretch and battled for the lead. If the race were one step shorter, Magna Tap would have won. It was that close at the finish.
Keraunos, a 5-year-old Oklahoma-bred gelding by Excaper, out of the City Zip mare City Thunder, won for the second time this meet, also breaking his maiden here on the grass at about one mile on Sept. 6. He is unbeaten in his two starts at the distance.
Owner Richard P. Chandler of Dallas, Texas, won for the fifth time this meet as he battles to get into the top five of those standings. Several owners have one more win than he does. Keraunos was bred by his owner.
Keraunos was sent off at 6-5 odds as the favorite and paid $4.40 to win, $2.60 to place and $2.10 to show. Magna Tap (5-2 second favorite) held on as the runner-up and was a half-length ahead of third-place finisher E d’Oro (10-1). The winner covered the distance in 1:39.24 and chased early fractions of :24.36 for the first quarter-mile, :49.24 for the half, 1:14.16 for three-quarters and 1:26.65 after seven-eighths.
Elliott’s first two wins of the night came in race two with Cool Memory and the eighth with Kell’s Bells. Both of those wins came for leading trainer Steve Asmussen. Cool Memory, also owned by Asmussen, paid $4.20 to win.
Kell’s Bells is owned by a group that couldn’t sound anymore like someone who would win on Halloween. The conglomerate’s name is Monkey With a Stick of Dynamite, from Fort Worth, Texas. Their 4-year-old colt went off as the even-money favorite and paid $4 to win.
Hernandez had one visit to the winner’s circle with Rollin Chrome ($3.60 to win) in race three. That moved him within one of 1,000 North American wins in his career. He could hit that milestone early Friday night as he has live mounts in both halves of the early daily double with four mounts overall on the nine-race program.