Gordon Elliott has Willie Mullins in his sights
Mullins’ stunning dominance of the scene in recent years has left his rivals floundering but Ellliott believes that, in time, he can surpass the Closutton supremo.
“I want to beat Willie Mullins someday, that’s what I want to do,” Elliott replied when asked his biggest ambition.
“I know it could take me 10 years but if you don’t think you’re going to do it, you shouldn’t be training. Willie’s set the bar and he’s making it higher and higher every day. He’s an amazing man and a gentleman, you can only admire him – you couldn’t say a bad word about him – but if I say I’m happy to be second for the next 10 years, I shouldn’t be training horses. Or someone shouldn’t be paying me to train horses.”
Overcoming such a Goliath represents a mammoth task but listening to the conviction with which Elliott spoke when addressing the media at the launch for the Leopardstown Christmas Festival at his Cullentra House training base in Meath yesterday you wouldn’t write him off.
If he ultimately falls short, it certainly won’t be for the want of effort. Or attention to detail.
His horses invariably are brilliantly turned out. It may seem a small thing but, for Elliott, such little details matter.
“You very rarely see one of ours not looking well at the races. It’s something I pride myself on. I should maybe start doing it myself a little bit more,” he joked, ‘‘but the girls do a great job, they look after the horses really well. I like them to be turned out well because the owners expect their horses to look well. It’s not going to make horses go any faster but (it is important).”
Constant progress is the aim of the game. A swimming pool, to the consternation of his bank manager, is the next big investment planned while a smaller scale improvement will see the shed where medical procedures like scoping are done fitted with TVs.
“We’re putting televisions up so when we scope them, we’ll have records of all the horses we scope so I’ll be able to email a picture of the scope to the owners. I doesn’t make them go any faster but it’s another improvement in the yard,” Elliott explained.
Expanding on the logic for major investments like the swimming pool, Elliott said: “We try to build something every year to improve the place. If you don’t keep moving with the times you go backwards. We’d five winners this weekend but if we don’t have a winner this weekend we’re forgotten about. If you’ve a bad day the press don’t be long in knocking you!
“If you want to compete, you have to keep improving. If someone rang me and said they want to give me 20 horses and I had to build a few more stables I wouldn’t refuse them.”
At present Cullentra House boasts 126 stables. Inevitably, Elliott wants more - 150 is the magic number. It’s a massive operation and Elliott was quick the praise the role played by his staff.
“If you look after your staff you’ll have them. I’ve no problem getting staff at all. When they’re here they all work hard, they all started at 7am today because we knew we wanted to have a few lots out early because this (hosting the media) obviously delays our whole morning,” he said.
“But they can finish early today, we’d a good weekend at Navan recently, we took them all out that evening and threw a few bob behind the bar. If you’re fair with them, they’ll be good.
“Let them go early on another day and they’ll put the couple of hours extra in when needed. That’s the way it is. I’m easy to work for. I’m highly strung, you roar and bawl but I forget about it 30 seconds later. “
Elliott, of course, famously burst on to the scene when winning the 2007 Aintree Grand National with Silver Birch when he hadn’t yet trained a winner in Ireland.
It was an unbelievable start to Elliott’s career but yesterday he stressed that success didn’t singlehandedly lift him to the point he’s at now.
“Silver Birch was great but winning the Grand National didn’t make this happen. We had to prove ourselves from there because no-one knew who I was when I won the Grand National. You have to improve every day; I bet you Willie Mullins will tell you he still makes mistakes every day.”
The equine star of the show yesterday was King George and Cheltenham Gold Cup hopeful Don Cossack who looked every inch the lord of the manor as he was schooled by Bryan Cooper.
Elliott said he “couldn’t be happier” with his stable star and asked his one wish for Christmas, his reply was instant and predictable. “To win the King George.”
You wouldn’t bet against it. Or against Elliott one day becoming top dog. Willie Mullins would do well to watch his back. This challenger isn’t going away.
