Comeback kid Gordon Elliott mob-handed for Cheltenham

Almost exactly a year after his career looked under threat Gordon Elliott is readying his biggest ever team for the Cheltenham festival in a fortnight.

Up to 55 horses are being prepared for the most high-profile week of the racing year, representing a remarkable transformation in fortune for the man who turns 44 on Wednesday.

That Elliott has returned seamlessly as a central festival figure testifies to his capacity for training winners, which has never been questioned, and his strength of character – which definitely was.

If quite a number of the most fervent critics of that infamous image of him sitting on a dead horse now sheepishly look back at the hysteria generated by what was essentially a transgression of taste, Elliott is still entitled to shudder at what might have been.

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The role of pariah during a media storm is not for the faint hearted. A six-month suspension of his licence, loss of owners, but – more importantly – the loss of reputation arising from that image left Elliott cutting an isolated figure.

The installation of Denise Foster as licence holder at the Cullentra stables near Longwood – that in a decade had been transformed from farmland into one of the most powerful yards in the sport – meant horses entered for Cheltenham could line up at the festival. Even that felt like a grudging step by the British racing authorities under pressure from those who felt Elliott’s presence at the yard where he lives was unacceptable.

A trio of festival winners officially saddled by Foster, not to mention four runner-up places and a pair of thirds, returned to a chilly reception that had little to do with racing taking place behind closed doors.

The difference a year makes is underlined by a pandemic nightmare getting swapped for the horror of war in Europe. Cheltenham will be thronged once again but only the dimwitted will ignore such a fraught wider context.

It was an invaluable appreciation of his own state of affairs that helped get Elliott through last summer when friends, concerned about his mental health, took him to see the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s doctor, Jennifer Pugh.

Assured of having staff and owners behind him, he resolved to hit the ground running when his suspension ended in September. With so much to prove, perhaps the remarkable element of his comeback is how routine Elliott has made it look. There have been 118 winners in Ireland alone and almost €3 million won in prize money.

Once again only Willie Mullins is ahead of him in the championship and in betting to be top trainer at Cheltenham. Elliott was top trainer at the festival in 2017 and 2018, with a joint-record eight winners the second time.

The chance of another Gold Cup to add to Don Cossack’s 2016 victory looks realistic through Galvin. Teahupoo is a “dark horse” to upset Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle. The next crop of potential stars is headed by the prime bumper hope American Mike.

Throw in Tiger Roll’s chances of a sixth festival victory guaranteed to bring the house down and it is an old normal no less remarkable for having looked so unlikely at one point.

Another old normal for the sport’s big guns at the festival is how best to divide up their huge resources. Elliott is tying up loose ends in terms of who goes where but it can be a tricky business as he indicted on Monday.

Gold Cup hopes

Galvin appears to be his number-one Gold Cup hope, to the extent that rather than take him on Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary wants to switch his own entry Conflated to the race he sponsors.

“[I’d go for] the Gold Cup. Michael wants to go for the Ryanair. I want to go for the Gold Cup so we’ll probably have an argument for five minutes and normally he gets his way. But I hope I get mine. If you win the Ryanair, that’s grand. But the Gold Cup is the Gold Cup. I just think the way the Ryanair will be run, with the likes of Allaho in there, if he does make a mistake or miss a fence, he might not get back into the race. The Gold Cup, they might not go as quick early,” said Elliott.

The credit in the bank built up by how he overruled O’Leary and won the Irish Gold Cup as a result might prove decisive yet.

Both leading juveniles Fil Dor and Pied Piper could line up in the Triumph Hurdle despite holding other engagements.

“I would say both of them will go for the Triumph. I think the track will suit Fil Dor very well. They’re two very good horses,” he said.

Much of Cheltenham 2022 could boil down once again to Mullins vs Elliott, a scenario summed up by the Champion Bumper where the unbeaten American Mike tackles the hugely exciting Facile Vega.

“Jamie Codd rode him this morning and we’re very happy with him. He will probably work at Leopardstown next Monday. He’s spot on. Obviously Willie’s horse sets a very high standard. Jamie’s rode in most of the bumpers and knows it’s going to be a tough race, but we won’t lie down,” said Elliott.

On the verge of spring and the biggest meeting of the year, it strikes a suitably defiant tone.