'It’s been a long couple of days' - relief for Gordon Elliott after Stayers' Hurdle joy

Jack Kennedy with Teahupoo after winning the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle on day three of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse. Picture: Mike Egerton/PA Wire. 

When used to inhabiting the winner’s circle, the Cheltenham Festival can quickly become a frustrating place when the first is refusing to arrive. Gordon Elliott, whose horses on the first two days were running well without hitting the mark, had his patience tested further when the Cross Country Chase, a race which he has had so much success in, was abandoned, but all of that faded into the background when Teahupoo and Jack Kennedy led an Irish domination of the Grade One Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle.

Many feel he should have won the race in 2023 but all that is academic as the now seven-year-old is a stronger, more experienced horse and was kept off the track for three months to be in peak condition for this. Elliott, knowing him to be at his best when fresh, kept him off the track from the third of December, when he won the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse, and it worked a treat.