Gordon Elliott sees a changing of the guard with his first Cheltenham trainer’s title
There’s a new force in national hunt racing as the Meath-based trainer triumphed over the Willie Mullins juggernaut at this year’s festival.
With the Cheltenham festival now done and dusted for another year it’s a time for reflection. After the first grueling Monday back in reality, a million miles away from the stunning Cotswold landscape, it’s time to indulge ourselves in HD and watch replay after replay of races that once again captivated an entire week of equine brilliance.
The majority of those who were in attendance have now slumped back into routine and won’t look at another horse until Punchestown rolls around, the minority are already working out runners and riders for next years four miler. Whatever bracket you’re in one thing is for certain: you’re already counting down the days until you hear that famous roar again. There is no doubt in my mind that one man in particular is already crossing the days off his calendar, and that is the 2017 festival’s leading trainer Gordon Elliott.
If there was ever a man who was going to put a stop to the Willie Mullins juggernaut it was the Meath trainer. Having the best season of his career to date and having already won the trainers title in Ireland for this season, he continues to go from strength to strength.
For the first time in four years he has put a stop to Willie Mullins Prestbury Park domination. With a total of six winners, three seconds and three third placed finishes across the four days he has become the first man since 2012 to win the title not named “W P Mullins”.
Nicky Henderson was the last man to pip Mullins to this honour and hasn’t been able to regain it since. Elliott is the new show in town and this could be a real sign of things to come.
The Meath man doesn’t seem to get the recognition he deserves in racing circles, being somewhat overlooked this year after the rise of English trainer Harry Fry and the sensational three quarters of a season from the Colin Tizzard yard. However this was a major statement, not just to the Mullins’ yard but to the national hunt world.
Already proven in Ireland with his trainers championship this year and eight overall festival wins to his name, in Britain he always seemed to be the forgotten man. Overseas they now know he’s not going anywhere.
The Supreme Novices hurdle kicked off proceedings last Tuesday and all the talk was for Melon, an unexposed but highly rated up and comer for Mullins and jockey Ruby Walsh. In Britain, Ballyandy was to get them off to a winning start in the Betbright Cup. The Nigel Twiston Davies fancy was the form horse in this race and Mullins army where the one’s who were going to bring him down a notch. For long periods it was playing out like this could be the case until the much maligned Labaik put them all to the sword and cruised up the hill to land Elliott his first winner of the festival.
Elliott mentioned in his post race interview that they wanted to go to Navan with Labaik on the Sunday after Cheltenham in the fear that he would refuse to jump off again and embarrass them on a global stage. The only thing he embarrassed was the rest of the field. At 33/1 on the day and ridden under future champion jockey Jack Kennedy, Labaik traveled like a dream and showed the speed and stamina to land Elliott his first of three winners on day one.
The Mare’s Hurdle was next for Elliott in the shape of Apples Jade. Third favourite to the Rich Ricci and Mullins duo of Limini and Vroum Vroum Mag, she outfought and outclassed her way past the post. An unbelievable training performance. Although the pick of the bunch from the rest of the field, she wasn’t given much hope against not one but two outstanding rivals.
Finally, Triumph Hurdle winner Tiger Roll’s sent the crowds into a frenzy with a stunning all round performance under Lisa O’Neill. Although quite frantic at times, hitting a couple of fences on his way round, he stuck at it and kept travelling, tracking the leader Missed Approach all the way in this stamina draining affair, winning comfortably by three lengths in end. The treble was up.
After day two it looked like things were a forgone conclusion for the rest of the trainers as the Cullentra House team racked up another two victories.
Cause of Causes was able to add to his previous two Cheltenham festival wins by running out a comfortable eight length winner in the Cross Country Chase and then the impressive Fayonagh bolted up in the previously Mullins dominated Champion Bumper. Not only was Elliott getting the better of Mullins, he was doing it in races synonymous with his yard.
By Thursday, nobody expected Mullins and Walsh to lay down quietly but nobody could imagine the pair to bounce back with a quadruple of winners. Yorkhill, Un De Sceaux, Nichols Canyon and Let’s Dance landed the yard’s first winners of the week. Empire of Dirt, who Elliott's reckons is his best chance at the Gold Cup, couldn’t handle the slick jumping of former festival winner Un De Sceaux.
After a breath-taking day on Thursday it was the Kilkenny native who came out fighting, taking a stronghold on the head to head. Two more wins for Mullins saw him take the lead as outright leading trainer. Outsiders Penhill and a rejuvenated Arctic Fire gave him a double on the day while Elliott struck a blank. 6–5 Mullins, not willing to relinquish his proudly held record without a fight.
It remained this way until the penultimate race of the festival. The Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle, a fitting way to end this battle of Ireland’s top trainers, as Martin Pipe himself landed this trophy three times in the last decade.
A race that throws up regular big price winners was sure to be a hotly contested affair and one that ultimately decided to what midland town the trainers title would go.
In what was a big field and a competitive race it was a horse with a fitting name that eventually got over the line and gave Elliott the victory he wholeheartedly deserved, Champagne Classic. You couldn’t write the script if you tried. Scenes of jubilation in the winners enclosure for owners and trainer alike. Gordon Elliott had done what I'm sure he could only have dreamed of as a thirteen year old when he first entered the racing world, working for Tony Martin. He was champion trainer.
Things may have gone a lot smoother for Elliott on his way to victory if many peoples banker of the festival Death Duty wasn’t hampered two out in the Albert Bartlett or Outlander had ran a different race in the Gold Cup but this victory will leave a sweet taste in his mouth that he won’t want to forget in a hurry.
With the backing of a premier suite of Gigginstown House Stud horses, this is certainly not his last crack at Cheltenham’s crown while we witness a seismic shift in the national hunt landscape.
