[1] Elwood was a bay colt sired by Free Knight out of the mare Petticoat (by Alarm).

By the time Elwood won the Derby in 1904, Free Knight had been sold for $45 and was used as a farm horse in southern Kentucky.

[2] Elwood was bred by Emma Holt Prather at Faustiana Stud in Maryville, Missouri and was bought in 1902 by Charles Durnell while on a horse buying trip to San Francisco, where the yearling was being trained.

[1] Elwood won at 15-1 odds over the favored colt, Proceeds, to win $4,850 in one of the greatest upsets recorded at the Derby to that date.

Elwood was gelded at some point during his four-year-old season but did race, with marginal success, until he was six years old in California.