Elliott and Russell on redemption trail
Both faced potential career-ending setbacks, but they aim to take Cheltenham by storm...
GORDON ELLIOTT and Davy Russell. Friends for 25 years and hardened racing men, who share a common goal at the Cheltenham Festival this week: redemption. If that sounds strange given Elliott’s 32 winners, and Russell’s 25 – both of which include the coveted Gold Cup – then a little context.
This time last year, Elliott was akin to Public Enemy No 1, especially in Britain, as he paid a huge price for a moment’s act of folly by sitting on a dead horse, while Russell was nursing a ‘simple fall’ with horrid consequences.
The trainer was banned from Cheltenham while the veteran jockey wasn’t fit enough to go.
Together, they shared tea and leaned on each other, with Russell part of the Cullentra kitchen cabinet which helped Elliott get through his ‘photo’ nightmare.
As wagons were circled, they vowed they would be back.
On September 14, Elliott returned to racing at Punchestown after serving a six-month ban; three days later, Russell ended an 11-month injury absence when he rode at
The surgeon said I was in the 10 per cent of people who walk again
Downpatrick. Gordon and Davy were in harness again.
Their paths first crossed as amateurs on the Irish Point-to-Point circuit, and again when they headed across to England, while they’ve enjoyed a number of Cheltenham trainer-jockey triumphs since 2011, including Tiger Roll, Envoi Allen and Samcro.
Heading to the Cotswolds, Elliott has assembled his biggest equine team, which is remarkable after he lost the support of such powerful owners as Cheveley Park, who withdrew subsequent 2021 Festival winners Sir Gerhard and Quilixios from his yard, and Envoi Allen, too.
He has a major hand to play across all four days, with two live contenders for Friday’s Gold Cup on Friday, Galvin and Conflated.
And Russell is available as a veteran gunslinger for hire, having recovered from a fall which leaves most folk paralysed, never mind eager to ride at 35 miles an hour again, over fences, while being pursued by an ambulance.
‘I never considered retiring because I wanted to get better,’ said Russell, who recalled his injury with the calm he will bring to battle this week.
‘It was a simple fall. I landed awkwardly, hit the top of my head and it pressed down, crushed one (vertebrae), broke another and dislocated another.
‘I knew I was in a bit of bother. It was like a firework went off in my thumb. There was not a huge amount of pain, more discomfort. I thought my shoulder was broken.’
‘The surgeon said I was in the 10 per cent of people with that injury who walk again. I was lucky.’
Lucky? The scale of the injury was rammed home when Russell underwent traction, which he described as ‘tortuous’.
‘When they were operating, they were going in through the front, and didn’t want anything in the way. I’d to go into traction for a number of hours.
‘They put bolts into the side of my head. They had weights, and kept adding water, adding weight, stretching, stretching and stretching until it (the vertebrae) slots back in. That was pretty tortuous.’
Russell did his utmost to make it to Cheltenham 2021 but ran out of time.
‘I was schooling one day, it was only a couple of days before Cheltenham and I’d a problem lifting my neck up to see the full landscape in front of me. All I could see was the horse’s tail in front of me.
‘My surgeon took the decision out of my hands and said I wasn’t ready.’
Now he is, for what is likely to be his final Festival.
At 42, Russell is older now than his contemporaries Ruby Walsh and Barry Geraghty were when they called it a day in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The spirit is still willing but the wear and tear inevitably is taking a toll. Russell is a family man, with four children under eight; he has horses on the go.
He has responsibilities. He also has Elliott to load high-calibre bullets into the chamber.
‘Everyone said he was mad to come back,’ said Elliott.
‘I kind of thought it as well to be honest, but knowing Davy and the determination that he has, he was always going to come back and the number of winners he’s ridden since just goes to show wasn’t he right?’
‘You see a lot of these lads these days and when they get a fall they need to be rubbed down, whereas Davy (Russell) is made of steel.
‘He’s one of the real old brigade and I just think for 42 years of age, his bottle, his determination is unbelievable.
‘I suppose his body is going to stop him, it’s not his determination or his will or his talent, but we’re minding him now.’
Russell is on 41 winners from just 171 rides, which indicates that he is pacing himself that bit now. And that suits Elliott grand as he has plans for his good friend this week, including Galvin in the Gold Cup.
Along the way, Elliott will continue to juggle his No 1 choice between ‘Butch Cassidy’ Russell and ‘The Sundance Kid’ Jack Kennedy, who is 20 years younger.
‘I think having Davy and Jack has made Davy better and is making Jack become better,’ said Elliott.
‘When it comes for Jack’s time to be first jockey, it’s going to be perfect because, as much as he could have had it when he was 16 or 17, I think he might have been too young for it.
‘I try and keep it as even as I can every day. I could give them two rides a day most days. I don’t have one with five rides and one with one.
‘Davy is making him better and he’s making Davy hungrier. The two of them get on great but it’s dog eat dog.’
Should the Elliott-Russell combination deliver at Cheltenham this week, it will matter more than anything they’ve done together before.
Both have experienced contrasting torment to take their place again on jump racing’s greatest stage. Gordon and Davy are back.