By Cecily Cairns
There are only three people who own an official Afleet Alex Kentucky Derby jacket.
The garments were stitched for a trio of history-makers: one for the horse’s trainer, one for the owners, and, of course, one for Alex’s amicable jockey, Jeremy Rose.
They weren’t dealt out to fans, nor were they tagged for media standbys. They weren’t for racetrack personnel, socialites or dignitaries, or even the entire cast of Cash Is King Stables, the outfit that owns the horse.
Simply put, you have to be someone special to wrap your palms around such a piece of posterity.
Rose, on one October afternoon, saw to it that one of those jackets fell into the hands of someone who is just that.
Elliot Peters has never ridden in a Kentucky Derby. He’s never wrangled a fitful two-year-old colt into submission on the backstretch. He’s never commandeered a 1,000-pound animal through volatile nose-to-tail equine traffic on the clubhouse turn.
But for all the pluck those things may command, the strife of subduing a cantankerous Thoroughbred pales in comparison with what 7-year-old Elliot has had to battle.
Elliot, diagnosed in August with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, has for the past three months endured bi-weekly chemotherapy and all the rigors that come with it.
So it was without pause that Rose passed that jacket, that irreplaceable mark of on-track achievement, into Elliot’s hands when the two met last month.
Most of the thousands who lauded Rose as a hero for his tenacity on horseback won’t ever hear of the heroics he quietly exercised for a young boy from Milesburg.
“No one will ever know what that meant to that child, “said Makata Peters, Elliot’s grandmother.
Last month, when Makata Peters heard that Rose would be making a rare hometown drop-in at Bellefonte’s homecoming celebration, she figured that maybe he could find time for a quick meeting with her grandson.
Rose and his mother, Cindy Robinson, didn’t balk at accommodating the wish.
The two met with Elliot and his father, former Bald Eagle Area assistant wrestling coach John Peters, at Robinson’s 33-acre horse farm in Centre Hall, introducing them to the barn’s equine inhabitants and chatting for more than an hour.
That gift of time, and the sincerity with which it was spent, was in itself invaluable.
But Rose wanted to make sure his young friend had more than just the mental memento.
As the visit reached its end, Robinson gave Elliot an Afleet Alex hat, a fine souvenir in its own right.
“Jeremy was just sitting there, and he didn’t say anything at first, “Robinson said. “Then a couple seconds later he said, ‘You know what, buddy, anybody can have an Afleet Alex hat.’ He said, ‘I’ve got something I’m going to give you,’ and I had no idea what he was talking about.”
Rose ducked outside to his truck and re-emerged with the coat.
“The next thing I know, he came back and he said, ‘Here, this is my Kentucky Derby jacket. … There’s only three people that have them,’ and then he gave it to him, “Robinson said. “It just blew me away; I never, never expected that.”
Just like that.
It wasn’t for show; it wasn’t to boost public image or mug for network television. Rose never looked for a figurative pat-on-the-back for what he did — he just did it.
It was, in its most basic sense, just one local boy reaching out to another.
“When (Jeremy) did that, I was just so proud, “Robinson said. “I was just so extremely proud that he took the time and sincerely did that for that child.”
In a way, it was simply right on keel with what the Peterses have found to be the pervasive spirit in this community — like when Elliot’s 11-year-old cousin, Caleb Peters, upon hearing of Elliot’s diagnosis, scooped up his lifelong accumulation of money and, without any parental cajoling, insisted on marching it straight to Geisinger and donating it to the cancer center. Or when Bald Eagle Area wrestler Colby Hoffman auctioned off his pig at the Grange Fair and directed every cent it yielded toward a donation to cancer research in Elliot’s name.
“The support has been unreal, just unreal, “Makata Peters said.
And it doesn’t get much more unreal than holding a wardrobe piece over which even the Horse Racing Museum and Hall of Fame would salivate.
“I don’t know if (Elliot) understood the importance of that coat to Jeremy, but he really just treasures it, “John Peters said. “He has some idea, but it’s not really going to hit him until years go by.”
Even at his young age, Elliot — who watched Jeremy’s Triple Crown expedition after John Peters showed him where the local star had left footprints, literally, in his aunt and uncle’s driveway — knows enough to know he’s got something special.
“Elliot didn’t say much at first. … He’s a little shy, but when we started home, he just talked the whole way home, “John Peters said.
And when the kid had the chance to show off that new keepsake, pride poured forth.
“He walked in (to my house) with this jacket on — God love him, it was down to his knees — and said, ‘Nanny, look what Jeremy gave me! “Makata Peters said.
Although the prized coat stayed home during Elliot’s next treatment at Geisinger Medical Center, he went armed with his Afleet Alex cap — and plenty to tell the nurses about his one-of-a-kind encounter.
Elliot’s newfound compadres have more in store for him down the road — Robinson promised him riding lessons and a trip to the races when he’s fully recovered — but for now, he’s got one slick black jacket to smile upon.
It doesn’t really matter that it drapes all the way to his knees; it doesn’t matter that it will be years before it can snuggly envelope his torso.
When the publicity crew at Churchill Downs made that coat, they intended for it to adorn the shoulders of someone who’d shown valor, resolve and maturity in making it to racing’s greatest stage.
They made it for a hero.
And in that regard, that jacket — and everything it was made to represent — already fits Elliot Peters quite well.
Wrestling Gear
