Unlike the majority of his training counterpart’s, Gordon Elliott is without a familiar pedigree in racing. He took the jump from an amateur jockey to a trainer in 2006 at just twenty nine, but within the space of a year, he achieved the goal that most trainers are still dreaming of after decades in the sport – winning the Grand National.
Having not yet even trained a winner in Ireland, the 33-1 success of Silver Birch foreshadowed Gordon Elliott’s destination for greatness. Five years after his first winner, Elliott landed his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival with Chicago Grey in the 2011 National Hunt Chase under top amateur Derek O’Connor. Staying chase successes have become synonymous with the Cullentra-based guru, with a further three winners of the National Hunt Chase coming in 2015, 2017 and 2020 including with the legendary Tiger Roll, who was responsible for two of Elliott’s five wins in the Glenfarclas Cross Country, along with a win in the 2014 Triumph Hurdle.
Gordon Elliott benefitted heavily from the Gigginstown row with Willie Mullins in 2016, who on the tenth year anniversary of Elliott’s training career, acquired the bulk of Gigginstown’s supported, unsurprisingly given they teamed up to win the Gold Cup with Don Cossack earlier that year. A year later, Elliott became Champion Trainer at Cheltenham for the first time, with the underdog aptly aided by Labaik winning the inaugural contest despite refusing to race in four of his six starts prior for the yard. Elliott notched up a personal best of six winners across the meeting, bookending the festival with Champagne Classic winning the Martin Pipe.
Despite the Willie Mullins domination in full flow, Elliott successfully regained his Champion Cheltenham Trainer crown a season later with a remarkable eight winners on Prestbury Park. Fifteen of the forty Cheltenham Festival winners to have come out of Cullentra were Grade One successes, and by now he has firmly established himself as one of the top operators in the National Hunt sphere.
His Cheltenham Festival prole is akin to his own meteoric rise against the odds, with several of his winners returning a large SP such as the aforementioned Labaik at 25/1, Commander Of Fleet in the Coral Cup at 50/1 and Sire Du Berlais winning the Stayers at 33/1 and Stellar Story winning the Albert Bartlett at 33/1. Akin to that of a Shakespeare play, the market is the Desdemona, his ‘fancied’ runners are the Othellos, and his successors often manifest themselves in the form of his Iagos.
Brighterdaysahead – Kapgarde x Matnie (Laveron) – Champion Hurdle/Mares Hurdle
Keeping in line with the Shakespearean act, there’s an ongoing melodrama regarding the destination of Brighterdaysahead, though the recent traction suggests the camp are keen to entertain the Champion Hurdle. It was deemed a tragedy by many with how she failed to beat Golden Ace in the Mares Novice last season, with the winner now rated 19lbs inferior. Brighterdayahead hails from the exceptional Matnie progeny, who’s responsible for Mighty Potter, French Dynamite, Caldwell Potter and Indiana Jones, all with a top RPR of 152+ and three of them bode Cheltenham entries. Elliott’s mare is the queen of the Matnie family table however, dethroning State Man on two occasions this season who’s dominated the Irish Champion Two Mile Hurdling ranks in recent years, earning herself a deserved shot at the king in Constitution Hill. Her official rating of 165 has already put her on a par with the star mare of the last decade in Honeysuckle, and she’s on a prestigious pedestal above connections’ Apple’s Jade. The general perception is that she’ll win the Mares Hurdle if the others started now, but the Champion Hurdle is a race that eludes connections’, and she could hardly be in a better position to challenge for it this season.
Teahupoo – Masked Marvel x Droit D’Aimer (Sassanian) – Stayers’ Hurdle
Mudlark Teahupoo went two places better than his third in the 2023 Stayers’ Hurdle to Sire Du Berlais last season, with his preferable conditions allowing him to storm up the hill having travelled sweetly around the outer throughout. He comfortably dispatched of the 2021 and 2022 winner Flooring Porter there, and Elliott has stuck to his ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t x it’ method in just giving him the one run this term prior to the festival. He posted an RPR of 166 in beating Impaire Et Passe in the Hatton’s Grace en-route, but he could only manage an RPR of 149 in finishing three lengths behind Lossiemouth in that renewal this season, which is by no means a detrimental feat, but the five-length gap back to Beacon Edge would possibly raise an eyebrow. He’s short enough for the race particularly given he needs a softer surface to be best effect, but that is a damning indictment of the weak nature of the staying division of late, and you wouldn’t like to be a layer at this stage.
Romeo Coolio – Kayf Tara x Miss Bailly (Kapgarde) – Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
The destination of the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle has shifted momentum throughout the season. Romeo Coolio was knocked off his perch for favouritism when Salvator Mundi won the Moscow Flyer despite still very much looking like a Da Vinci painting in progress himself, then along came Kopek Des Bordes who although looked something more of a finished article when bolting up at the DRF, was still a keen enough sort himself. Romeo Coolio is more workmanlike and straight forward than that pair, but I don’t think he’s been given the credit he deserves, presumably as he comes into the contest with a second to Tounsivator in the Royal Bond. Either side of that he was impressive, latterly coming in the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and I don’t think he’s been seen to best effect in his races this season, and a strongly run Supreme could easily see him upset the favourites.
The Yellow Clay – Yeats x Winning Indian (Indian Danehill) – Albert Bartlett/Turners
The Yellow Clay is an interesting one as he’s the favourite for the Albert Bartlett yet Gordon Elliott seems hellbent on sending him to the Turners. He has the profile for the former, as he’s a relentless galloper who arrives unbeaten over hurdles on the back of a five-timer, having comfortably landed the Lawlors Of Nass last time out. While that was impressive visually, the form doesn’t appear to be all that strong and for Turners fans, it was a touch concerning that he needed every yard of the 2m4f at Navan to get up from Fleur In The Park in the G2 Navan Novice Hurdle. That was a slowly run contest however, and the Turner’s often is, so there is an element of hope that that contest was deceptive, and perhaps he does obtain the turn of foot often required to land the intermediate Grade One.
Kalypso’chance – Masked Marvel x Escort’Chance (Martaline) – Champion Bumper
There doesn’t appear to be a standout bumper contender this season, with the current favourite only being unleashed last weekend, and Kalypso’chance is perhaps being overlooked at this stage. The £85,000 son of Masked Marvel is unbeaten in his three racecourse starts to date, landing a Corbridge point by Trust Me Nate against his elders only last year, and he bolted up on rules debut in a Punchestown bumper in November in a race that Elliott won with Caldwell Potter two seasons ago. He looked to have a lovely aptitude for racing there, galloping with purpose and determination to the line to comfortably dispatch the Mullins-trained second. He then went to the Future Champions Bumper at Navan to give Elliott an impressive eighth win in the last nine renewals, including with the likes of Samcro, Envoi Allen and Sir Gerhard. Despite taking a keen hold in third, he bolted away in the last one hundred yards to win impressively once again and you gather the impression that he’ll be better suited to a stronger gallop in a big eld to give Gordon Elliott his third win in the race.
While Elliott may not have a host of well fancied favourites, he brings his largest battalion of horses yet to the festival with around 145 individual entries scattered across these historical four days of elite sporting entertainment. On the law of averages, he’s likely to have a couple of his trademark market outliers land, and the game is on to piece together what often feels like an impossible Cullentra-based jigsaw.
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