A wonderful time of year for Elliott
IT WAS still dark at Cullentra as the first lot of Gordon Elliott’s horses trotted out to work yesterday morning. The tireless trainer was on hand too, as chief overseer, ignoring the lack of sleep which followed the Christmas party for his stable staff the night before in Trim.
Elliott, like almost everyone in the racing world, enjoys socialising, but he also possesses the drive and self-discipline to be first on call the next morning.
The notion of passing on the chores to a member of his team in return for a lie-in would never occur to him. He could never have become champion trainer at Cheltenham for the first time in March, or trained 193 winners in the 2016-17 season, by staying in the cot.
Elliott has more horses in his yard than any other jumps trainer, the majority of which will be saddled up for action over the Christmas period.
Between yesterday and today, they will go through their final pieces of work ahead of Festival battle.
Next week is the busiest time of the year for National Hunt trainers, with St Stephen’s Day marking the start of four-day Festivals at Leopardstown and Limerick. In addition, there is racing at Down Royal on the 26th, while Elliott may also have representation in the ‘King George’ at Kempton the same day with Outlander.
He has logged massive entries for battle on home turf, with no fewer than 85 at the three Irish meetings on St Stephen’s Day.
While some horses are entered across meetings, Elliott expects to saddle around 100 runners over four days, which is more than many trainers send out over a season.
It’s confirmation of the leaps taken by the 39-year-old Meath trainer since he sent out Silver Birch to win the Grand National at Aintree in 2007.
People around Elliott back then knew he was the real deal, that the National was no fluke, and they were on the money.
His career graph has continued on an upward curve since then, with Elliott constantly demanding more of himself, and his team around him.
The more successes he has enjoyed, the more owners with deep pockets took note. Michael O’Leary’s ambitious Gigginstown House operation are his chief patrons, but other big players have beaten a path to his door and he will have runners over Christmas for JP McManus, Simon Munir and Chris Jones. The last on that list is the owner of Noble Endeavour, which scooped the biggest pot of the Leopardstown Festival last year, the Paddy Power Handicap Chase.
This time, Elliott has 12 entries for that race, some of which need others to drop out to make the 28-runner cut. Whatever gets in, he will ‘run them all’ and any one of them could win.
For when it comes to the handicaps, Elliott is the king.
At his local Navan track last Sunday, rival Willie Mullins won the only Grade Two race on the card, but Elliott scooped the richest race, a €50k handicap hurdle.
This time last year, Mullins was miles behind Elliott in the trainer’s title race, but he scored heavily at Christmas with six winners on St Stephen’s Day and 21 over the four days.
In terms of winners, Elliott leads Mullins by five, 122 to 117, while a little over €300,000 separates them at the top of the table in win and place money.
With €1.3m to play for at Leopardstown alone, there is the opportunity for either trainer to make serious inroads.
Mullins has long been established as a trainer of jump racing’s elite but Elliott has added quality to his yard and earlier this month became the first trainer to complete the treble of Grade One wins at the ‘Bar One’ Fairyhouse meeting.
Those three winners, Apple’s Jade, Mengli Khan and Death Duty, all owned by Gigginstown, could all reappear at Leopardstown. Death Duty appeared Limerick-bound in the aftermath of Fairyhouse but Elliott has yet to decide.
It is one of many calls he must make over the coming days. For it’s not just about picking the right horse for the right race, but also the right jockey too.
While Jack Kennedy, still only 18, will have first call on most of Elliott’s charges, the seasoned Davy Russell can expect plenty of ammunition too.
Back-up riders such as Keith Donoghue, Andrew Ring, Jamie Codd and Liz O’Neill will be kept busy, while every claimer in the yard will have their riding boots and whip to hand.
Before dawn next Tuesday, the Elliott horseboxes will be loaded and rolled out on the roads, with one crew heading north towards The Maze, another south-west to Greenmount Park and a third, eastwards to Foxrock.
One thing is certain: they won’t return empty-handed.