Colm Greaves: Maybe we should stop short of the complete destruction of Gordon Elliott

Due to the nature of social media righteousness reigned, piety poured and no tortured emotion remained unexpressed. Lifelong supporters of racing pledged that they’d never re-engage with their sport again

Gordon Elliott at last year's Cheltenham Festival. The trainer must get out in front of his problem and take his medicine, publicly and with humility, says Colm Greaves. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Early one Thursday morning in February 1992 the businessman Ben Dunne found himself standing on the ledge of a 17th-floor balcony at the Grand Cyprus Hotel in Florida, in the throes of a cocaine fuelled meltdown.

As the police tried to talk him gently from calamity a woman in his suite, employed from the ‘Escorts in a Flash’ agency, explained to some other officers how his inability to access a safe in his room seemed to have triggered the psychotic behaviour. Happily, the situation was contained, Dunne was arrested and after posting a $25,000 bail bond, jumped on a flight home and arrived back in Dublin early on the following Sunday morning. He arrived just in time to see the details of a story he’d hoped to keep secret splashed all over the front page of The Sunday Tribune.