Months of planning come together for Elliott’s A-Team
FLANKED by his loyal lieutenants of Cullentra House, Gordon Elliott took his position by the last flight at Cheltenham just before 3.30pm yesterday.
Elliott’s mood may have matched the grey skies overhead.
It was moments before the off in the £325,000 Stayers’ Hurdle and Elliott’s Festival was hanging on Teahupoo, the favourite for the three-miler.
Through two and a half days of competition, Elliott had struck the crossbar, seen shots hacked off the line, but he hadn’t managed to put the ball in the back of the net.
He’d sent out three seconds and three thirds. Close but no cigar. Teahupoo, named after a surfing village in Tahiti, simply had to beach his rivals.
Elliott could feel the pressure bubbling up within.
He’d targeted this race all season. He’d wrapped Teahupoo up in cotton wool since early December. His week, his day hinged on the outcome.
As for Irish punters, they were reeling after drawing three straight blanks, including the Ryanair Chase.
Fergie time had arrived in the Cotswolds as the home guard fought back after two days on the canvas.
Even so, the money flooded in for Teahupoo. From 2/1 to 5/4, he was backed as if defeat was out of the question.
As the race unfolded, Elliott stood by the final flight, eyes glued to the big screen opposite.
Teahupoo was forced a fraction too wide for his liking at times and a mistake two out might have been an irreversible setback but for the long straight in use on the New Course.
Jack Kennedy didn’t flinch and trusted his seven-year-old steed to respond under stoking, which he did.
Leading over the last from the former dual champion, Flooring Porter, the younger horse drew clear on the hill to win by almost four lengths.
Denied by a nose a year ago when stablemate Sire Du Berlais executed a shock victory, this was his day and Kennedy’s, too, as he bagged his 11th Festival winner.
Punters punched the air and Elliott felt the valve empty. ‘I nearly have tears in my eyes, I’m so happy,’ said the trainer.
‘It was a long way up the straight but he got there. I thought this was our best chance of the day. This was one of our biggest guns.
‘The horses are running well and there are no excuses and no hardluck stories either, but to win the Stayers’ Hurdle is just unbelievable — for the whole team and for
“I nearly have tears in my eyes, I’m so happy”
Jack (Kennedy) and for (owners) Robcour.
‘It’s been a long couple of days, but no horse didn’t win that should have won.
‘It’s a great place and we’ve always been back-end heavy so far as our best chances were concerned. We’ve loads of chances still, but this one was probably our best of the week. We’ve one on the board now,’ said Elliott after what was his 38th Festival win.
Watching from the viewing area close to the last, pulling nervously on a cigarette, was former jockey Robbie Power, who rode Teahupoo in the 2022 Champion Hurdle. ‘Teahupoo was my last ride on the track and my last Graded winner as well so I’m delighted for Gordon,’ said Power.
‘Brian (Acheson) of Robcour and Gordon made the plan for him after the Hatton’s Grace that he’d go straight for the Stayers’ Hurdle.
‘He came to my yard for a break for six weeks, was freshened up, and then went back to Gordon’s in mid-January. It’s great when a plan comes together.
‘A good few Robcour horses come to my yard for pre-training and their holidays. I’m delighted that Teahupoo has had his big day. He was unlucky to lose last year and he deserved that today.’
Acheson said the six minutes and eight seconds of racing was the culmination of a four-month plot.
‘He doesn’t take a lot of racing and I said to Gordon and Robbie (Power) after his last win that we’d be going straight to the Stayers’.
‘Some people questioned that but I love quotes and one of the best is, “I love it when a plan comes together” by Hannibal Smith from the A-Team.’
Power, who played a key role in the plan, is keeping busy since retiring at the Punchestown Festival in 2022.
‘I do race planning for Henry (de Bromhead) and Robcour as well. It’s been a great week so far. Henry has had two winners, Robcour have had two winners as well.’
How does his new role compare to being a jockey?
‘It’s a lot more stressful,’ he smiled. ‘A jockey’s life was very easy, I’ve only started working now! When you were a jockey you
went in the back door and you rode the horses and you went home but now it’s a lot more stressful.
‘I loved when I got up on a horse in a race and everything was in my control and now you have no control on the track, it’s taken me a bit of time to get used to it. ‘When you’re handing over to the likes of Rachael (Blackmore), Jack and Darragh O’Keeffe, you know you’re in good hands. ‘You have to have faith in your players going out on the pitch and we have faith the jockeys riding for us. ‘There’s none better round here than Rachael, she’s had some fantastic rides this week. ‘Same with Jack, he wasn’t getting the rub of the green this week but I’m delighted for him that Teahupoo won,’ he added. Power won the Gold Cup in 2017 on Sizing John, might Elliott’s Gerri Colombe or Mouse Morris’s Gentlemansgame put it up to Galopin Des Champs in the Blue Riband today for Robcour? ‘I hope so. The rain is going to help both of them. If Galopin turns up like he did at Christmas, he’s going to be very hard to beat but at least we’re in there pitching.’ Elliott was disappointed by the run of his Brighterdaysahead in the Mares Novices’ Hurdle after the 5-6 shot finished second to Golden Ace.