What a difference 12 months can make.
This time last year Gordon Elliott was navigating the first few days of a six-month ban, imposed by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board after an image from 2019 of him sitting on a dead horse on the gallops had been circulated online, causing outrage that stretched way beyond the racing world.
Elliott had been cast out into the wilderness, with stars such as Envoi Allen removed from his charge in the wake of the controversy and the keys to his Cullentra yard handed over to caretaker handler Denise Foster while he served his punishment.
It seemed beyond imagination when the image first emerged that it could be genuine. But it was.
He said in a statement at the time: “I am in this situation by my own action and I am not going to dodge away from this. With my position in the sport I have great privileges and great responsibility. I did not live up to that responsibility.”
Recently turned 44, he is not keen to dwell on the past, instead preferring to focus on his return to the training ranks in September, boosted by not only the support of his staff but also the warm welcome back from large parts of the Irish racing public.
“We’re here to talk about Cheltenham and not talk about what happened a year ago,” he said on a visit to his base in County Meath. “But if you asked me on this day last year if I’d be in the position I’m in today, I’d have said no.
“It just shows the team I have behind me and the owners I have, we’ve all worked very hard over the last 12 months and it’s a credit to the whole team I have and the owners I have.
“Going to Cheltenham, the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, but going racing at Punchestown on September 14 (his first meeting back after his ban), the hairs stood up on the back of my neck for different reasons.
“Nervous, everything – Cheltenham is different, I love going there, but going back to Punchestown that day was very special.
“I knew everyone was going to be there, most of the journalists were there – for the wrong reasons they wanted to see me – but I went to Sligo a few days later and people were clapping me back into the parade ring, everyone was great and it just shows we are as good as what we do.
“The one thing with the Irish is that when people are down they won’t love to kick them, but on the way back up they love to be patting you on your back. It’s a great country and we’re great people.”
Elliott has enjoyed an enduring friendship and partnership with jockey Davy Russell, with the pair having rode together in point to points before teaming up as trainer and first-choice jockey.
While Elliott was sidelined at last year’s Festival by his ill-judged decision, Russell was also forced to sit it out through injury, having sustained a serious back injury that threatened his ability to even walk.
He had to complete a gruelling 11-month rehabilitation process and Elliott is amazed by how he continues to defy his advancing years.
“Davy’s a brilliant jockey – his bottle is amazing for a man of 42 years of age, his determination, his hunger to come back from injuries,” he said.
“You see a lot of these lads these days, they get a fall and they’re sore and they need to be rubbed down – Russell’s made of steel, one of the real old brigade.
“I suppose his body is going to stop – it’s not his determination, or his will or his talent – it’s his body that’s just starting to slow down because of age.
“We’re minding him now. We don’t have him riding too much for too many people. I don’t know how many more weeks, months or years we’re going to get out of him, but as long as we have him, we’ll treasure him.”
Russell’s heir apparent Jack Kennedy is already on the scene and Elliott feels the young rider has not only learnt from Russell, but his presence has also made him hungrier for success.
“I think having Jack has made Davy better and Davy has made Jack be better,” he said.
“Whether Davy rides another year or two, when it becomes Jack’s time to be first jockey, it’s going to be perfect because as much as he could have had it when he was 16 or 17, he might have been too young for it.
“Davy’s making him better and he’s making Davy hungrier, the two of them get on great but it’s dog eat dog.”
Elliott’s Festival absence certainly did not stop the Irish mopping up at Prestbury Park last year, with Foster saddling three winners from the Cullentra ranks.
The domination sparked plenty of debate about the state of British racing, with Elliott of the belief that money, ultimately, talks.
He explained: “I suppose we’re in a position at the moment where a few of the Irish trainers just have owners with a lot more firepower.
“They’re spending more money, which I’d say is a big help. We’ve a good relationship with the lads (who prep and sell horses) and I think we’re very lucky – and Willie Mullins and Henry de Bromhead – that we’ve a lot of Irish and English owners that want to support Irish racing.
“We’ve got good prize-money and long may it last.”
Elliott certainly has the kind of team to make a mark at this year’s Festival, with Cullentra set to send its biggest ever squad across the Irish Sea.
Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Galvin is the headline act, having made seamless progress since his National Hunt Chase win last year to lift the Savills Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas and mark himself as more than just a stayer.
Elliott said: “I thought he was going to be more a Grand National horse, but he’s improving week in, week out. He’s going to have to improve again to win a Gold Cup, but I just think he’s going into the race with a really good profile – you know he stays, you know he likes the track.”
Weatherbys Champion Bumper hope American Mike has been campaigned with the same regard as former stable star Envoi Allen, while Elliott rates Zanahiyr as “a good each-way chance” in the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
The horse guaranteed to raise the Cheltenham roof should he triumph though is the incomparable Tiger Roll, the dual Grand National winner who is set to sign off his remarkable career by seeking a sixth Festival win in the Glenfarclas Chase.
He roared back to form to win the cross-country feature last year and should conditions be in his favour, Elliott is anticipating one last hurrah for his diminutive hero.
“I suppose the one negative would be if it’s soft. Tiger Roll is not the same horse on soft,” he explained.
“He’s getting older so it’s hard to say if he’s as good as he was in his pomp, but if he turns up in the form he has the past couple of years, he will take all the beating.”
Redemption might be the wrong word for Elliott’s Festival return, but normal service seems certain to resume.
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