Banking on Gordon Elliot
“It’s definitely the best bunch of horses we’ve sent and it’s nice to have a few for the Graded races for the first time.
“We have horses disputing favouritism for the RSA Chase (No More Heroes) and the Gold Cup (Don Cossack) and a few other each-way chances in good races.
“We have millions for the handicaps and they’re an exciting bunch as well.”
“We’ve had five Festival winners so far and a lot have hit the crossbar, but five winners is okay.
“I’d love to win the Gold Cup. If we get a winner in Cheltenham, I’ll be delighted and if we get two, it’ll be brilliant.
“I’d love to win one of the bigger races and just keep improving. Cheltenham is a great place, it’s where we all want to go, you wait all year to get there and it’s over in a flash.
“I enjoy it. Obviously it’s getting bigger for us. A couple of years ago you’d go with five or six runners and it was very easy going.
“We have to be more on the ball now.
“We’ve got a lot more horses and owners and press to talk to, but it’s an enjoyable week and if we get a winner, the craic is good.
“I like to have goals and aims, and a winner at Cheltenham is worth 20 winners elsewhere.”
“I travel horses a lot to England and a lot of people don’t realise it but for me, travelling over to England on the lorry is like their last bit of work. You have to leave a little bit in them as you could empty them very quick travelling over if you’ve got the screw turned too tight.
“I’m probably lucky enough that a lot of my horses have travelled, as sometimes you can go with a horse and not know what will happen.
“Thankfully most of ours have been on the boat before and we’re looking forward to it.”
“We’ve been training here nearly three years now. I bought it (Cullentra) four and a half years ago and it took me a year and a half to two years to get it sorted. There was nothing here other than a couple of sheds that were falling down when we bought it.
“I was renting a yard and it was a bit of a job trying to afford to do the whole thing at the same time, but thankfully we’ve got there. We have a six-and-a-quarter-furlong woodchip gallop.
“There’s a slight incline for the last three furlongs, which makes them work when they come up there twice. We also have a four-furlong Wexford sand gallop. That’s good as it makes them work really hard and gets the bottom into them.
“We’ve a furlong-and-a-half oval with two jumps either side, which is great for young horses and getting them to relax and pop away. We also have a straight all-weather schooling strip with three hurdles and three fences and we have the jumps out on the grass.
“It’s great to be able to jump on the grass, but the problem we have is for 11 months of the year, it’s bottomless and for the other month, it’s rock hard, so you have to pick and choose what you school on it. We have all the gallops, we’ve 138 stables and we’re going to put a swimming pool in this summer. The funds just ran out last year!”
“We’re a young team and we all get on well.
“I’m 38 and I’d be the oldest person working here. Simon McGonagle, my head lad, we’ve been best friends since we were 10 or 12, and went to school together. We work together, we socialise together, we do everything together. I don’t second guess him and he doesn’t second guess me, we get on like a house on fire.
“He’s my right hand man, but we have a lot of good lads and every one of them has got a part to play.
“It’s a big team effort and I hope we can keep it going. I like the girls to do up the horses when they go racing and if horses look bad, I wouldn’t send them.
“If someone is paying you money, it’s nice to have their horses looking tidy. At least if they’re tailed off, they look well coming back in! I like the horses to be turned out well. It doesn’t make them go any faster, but it helps.”
“I suppose I make a lot of mistakes still and I’m not afraid to admit it, but we’re trying to rectify it and we’re getting better every year. If you want to train horses and try to be champion trainer, you have to compete with Willie and he sets the bar higher every week.
“To try to follow him, we’ve just got to put our heads down and keep trying because if we’re happy with what we’re doing, we’re never going to catch him. The quality is getting better every year, which is something we’re really happy with. I’m trying to improve the whole time and try to be honest. If you’re honest, you’ll be okay in life, no matter what you do.”
“He’s only 16 and I was talking to his agent the other day and he doesn’t know if it’s ever been done before, for a lad of his age to have ridden the winners he has, especially over jumps.
“He’s flying through his claim and he’s going to be top class if he can keep in one piece and keeps his head right. He’s from a good family and he’s very sensible. He’s going to be one of the names that’s going to go right to the top, touch wood. He’s just very natural and a real nice fella. He’s getting the breaks and taking them. He’s taking every opportunity, not missing it, that’s what separates good lads from very good lads.
“You look at Barry Geraghty, Ruby Walsh, Tony McCoy, and Richard Johnson, that level is that level. If Jack keeps going the way he’s going, he could be very, very good.
“I had to stop him riding on the Flat a few months ago because everyone was ringing me wanting him to ride. I probably should have stopped him a few months earlier.”
“Bryan (Cooper) is here three days a week, he’s very good. Jamie Codd is here a couple of days, Davy Russell comes in, Barry (Geraghty) will come in an odd day.
“Then there’s Luke Dempsey and Kevin Sexton, we’ve millions of them coming in. I try to give the young lads as much of a chance as I can, but it’s hard sometimes as a lot of owners have got retained jockeys.
“We try our best to give them all a chance and it is hard, but sometimes if we have five runners in a Troytown or a Thyestes, they’ll get an opportunity. They’re all good lads and if they come in and work hard, I’ll give them a chance, but at the same time, I’ve always tried to use the best available.
“There’s no point in being loyal if they’re no good. That’s the long and the short of it. If they’re good enough, I’ll give them a chance, but if they’re not, it’s the wrong place to be.”
“Let’s have it right, I was a middle-of-the-road amateur, but I was lucky to ride for some good people, like the Pipes. I knew when I was in my early 20s I wasn’t going to be a Ruby Walsh, so I was going to have to do something else.
“I thought I’d train a few point-to-pointers and do a bit of buying and selling, but it all just snowballed into what it is now, and I love it. Every day, I wake up and pinch myself, how lucky I am.
“Everywhere I worked I kept my eyes open and tried to learn. As important as it was working for the Pipes, I still go back there a couple of times a year and have a chat with Martin and bounce ideas off him.
“He’s my hero in racing, so you try to do a lot of what you see and put your own thing to it.
“I’ve been second in the Martin Pipe (Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle) twice, I’m still good friends with them, obviously, and after winning the Gold Cup that would be the second race I’d like to win.”
