Gordon Elliott: I’m lucky to be in the same league as Willie Mullins
BRIGHTER DAYS AHEAD?: Gordon Elliott with Brighterdaysahead and Romeo Coolio pictured at the launch of the 2026 Dublin Racing Festival. Pic: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy.
The third Monday of the year is said to be the most depressing day on the calendar but for Gordon Elliott it’s just another day, another step on the journey towards one day realising his dream of becoming champion trainer of Ireland.
One day, just not any day in the immediate future, Elliott insists.
Elliott currently leads 19 times champion trainer Willie Mullins by €628,300 but having come off second best to his great rival 13 times, including the last 11 years in a row it’s easy to see why the current leader is dismissive when asked about his title prospects.
He did so again on Monday as he welcomed members of the press to his Cullentra House base in Meath for a stable tour ahead of the upcoming Dublin Racing Festival.
After providing his now stock “I have no chance” reply when the inevitable question was posed, Elliott waxed lyrical about the man who keeps denying him the prize he craves most.
“People talk about Vincent O’Brien and these sort of things, Willie Mullins is a different machine altogether: The horses he has, the numbers he has, the set-up he has is second to none,” Elliott says.
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“I’m lucky to be in the same league as him, I think I’ve been second 13 times to him. It’s something I dream about every day and it’s something I want to do someday but it’s going to take a few more years before we get where we want to be.”
Constantly improving his training base is part of the quest. Floodlights on the gallops are a recent addition to allow horses to be put through their paces during the dark winter mornings, especially Saturdays when race meetings begin so early.
“If you’re not trying to improve your place every year, you’re sitting still,” he says.
“Every yard I go to, whether it's a racing yard or a cattle yard or if you go to a different factory, everywhere you go, you see something that you might pick up. I try to improve the place of all time, every penny I have I put back into it.
“We probably have around 70 to 75 people employed full-time, and we’ll have students at the weekend to take us to 80 to 90. We’re very lucky we’ve got great staff, we’re in a great area here, we’ve six or seven houses rented around the area so it’s a big operation, but it works well.”
Saddling 13 winners at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting was beyond Elliott’s wildest dreams and he will return to the Foxrock venue for the Dublin Racing Festival Saturday and Sunday week with a strong team, spearheaded by Brighterdaysahead in the Irish Champion Hurdle.
She wasn’t one of Elliott’s 13 Leopardstown winners last month but seeing her run so well to get within a length of Lossiemouth on her first run for 240 days delighted her trainer. As has her work since.
“She’s in great form. Shane McCann rides her every day and he's very happy with her,” he says.
“We think she’s improved from Leopardstown the first day, don't forget she was stood in her box for two weeks in November.
“She was supposed to be going to Down Royal for a novice chase, that’s the route we were going, it was well publicised, but she pulled a muscle and was lame. I’d say she missed two and a half to three weeks work.
“She has improved; she’s in very good form. Whether she’s good enough to beat Lossiemouth, I’m not saying that at all as we know she is very good but ours has improved, she's in good form and I’m happy with her.” Romeo Coolio is another key runner with Elliott set to make a late call on whether he contests the Irish Arkle over an extended two miles or takes on Final Demand in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase over half a mile further.
“He’s a great horse; he's won two Grade Ones already this season. He's in both races at the DRF, the two-miler and over two-five, I’m under no pressure and we’ll leave the decision late,” Elliott says.
The exciting El Cairos is entered at the Dublin Racing Festival, but Elliott is pondering an easier alternative option after his final flight fall denied him an impressive Leopardstown victory last month.
“I’m not saying he’s not going to go, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he goes for a maiden hurdle on the Monday or Tuesday after Leopardstown,” Elliott says.
“I always feel that a horse who had a fall like that, to go straight into Grade One company, if they jump slow at one or two it's all over, so he could go for a maiden and then to the Supreme Novices’.
“He’s absolutely flying, he did a serious bit of work the other day, he was going to win well at Leopardstown and he was just unlucky.”
Elliott may be dismissive about his own title chances, but he’s convinced Jack Kennedy can claim a second champion jockey title.
Kennedy is currently four wins behind title leader Darragh O’Keeffe, but Elliott reckons his stable jockey is in “pole position” to regain the crown he previously won in the 2023-24 season.
“He’s in pole position. He's been unlucky he got broke up so many times. If anyone was to be champion jockey again, I don't think anyone would be as good as Jack given the resilience he has to keep coming back.”
Elliott has shown similar resilience, and one suspects he’ll eventually get to the top of the mountain. One thing is certain: He won’t stop trying.
