I joined the Gordon Elliott Racing Club in December 2017 after watching members of another racing club being interviewed by Alice Plunkett on one of the ITV Racing Saturdays around that time. A few google searches later I discovered the Gordon Elliott Racing Club. I'm still trying to figure out what club and who that horse was. I think it was one running at Aintree on Saturday 9th December 2017. A year after that, Smiling Eliza was running at Aintree for us on ITV Racing. I still have that on my Sky Box planner.
That is one of the highlights of my time in the racing club. I would've loved to have been there but had already booked months earlier to go to Liverpool the following weekend to see the Mighty Reds beat Man United. As much as I love horse racing, Liverpool FC will always be my primary sporting love. That was one race we knew Eliza was being aimed at for a good while but obviously we couldn't be absolutely sure until she was a confirmed entry and then declared which all happened the week of the race. Not being able to plan trips to the races in advance is one of the very few difficulties I had with the club as there was rarely word about what races our horses were being aimed at but maybe that sort of planning only applies to the star horses. A few dedicated members did travel over to Merseyside from across the Irish Sea to join some of the English club members and they will always have an amazing memory of being in the parade ring watching Eliza walk round, listening to Gordon give Jack Kennedy his final instructions and watching her run at the home of the most famous horse race in the world. Unfortunately the ground went against her that day. Nonetheless she ran at
Aintree on the telly. That was the end of my first year with GERC. There was much to look forward to in year two.
There was still serious talk of Eliza going to the Cheltenham Festival 2019. I wasn't going to miss out again so I booked to go for the week. Following victories at
Down Royal and
Punchestown, the initial chat was that she could go for the Triumph Hurdle but after finishing a long way behind the likes of Chief Justice, Got Trumped and La Sorelita at Leopardstown (edit: I drove a 4hr round trip to this only to arrive to no ticket. Leopardstown said the yard didnt order enough tickets, the yard claimed they did but members must've been taking more than their allocation. I had to really dig my heels in to get a ticket. After this incident there was a list of names with tickets) on Boxing Day, in a race in which Coeur Sublime fell at the last with the race seemingly at his mercy and then another below par performance at Fairyhouse in the new year, Gordon told a few of us in person that she'd be aimed at the Fred Winter. Eliza returned to some sort of form at
Thurles later in January 2019 when she was demoted from third to fourth for sending another horse into the rail on the run-in. Suddenly, the talk after that turned to her being put in foal! That thinking also ended quite quickly as she was entered in another big meeting,
The Dublin Racing Festival in February but she failed to fire even when in receipt of up to two stone from the other runners. That was over 2m 2f and she was next seen in a 2m 4f Mares Hurdle at
Navan in a race Busty said she would have to win piss easy if she had any chance of going to Cheltenham. (I also got a one on one post race interview with Jack Kennedy after this). This was Boyne Hurdle day with Tiger Roll winning the main event on his way to back to back
Grand Nationals.
That was it for Eliza in terms of the Cheltenham Festival and I wondered if that was it for her being the star of the Gordon Elliott Racing Club. I had a brilliant time at
Cheltenham anyway although there was a nagging feeling of being on the outside looking in as I stood at the parade ring watching owners, jockeys and trainers parlais. Band Of Outlaws won the
Fred Winter and there was a brilliant run from the Elliott trained Coko Beach in second. On two occasions at race meetings in Ireland, at the start of the year, I'd bumped into a couple of lads who run another racing club/syndicate and had chatted with them about our horses, their horses, their club, Gordon's other horses and told them I was going to the Cheltenham Festival for the first time. I bumped into them at Prestbury Park and they pretty much blanked me. As with most things in life, you meet some great people but you meet some dick heads too.
Day 3 will long be remembered for wins by Frodon and Paisley Park. Pentland Hills won the Triumph Hurdle on
the final day with Coeur Sublime second. I was there when Willie Mullins finally lifted the Gold Cup. A couple of months later I would also get my hands on a Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Smiling Eliza wasn't seen again until the end of April when she went over the longer trip again at
Perth but finished well down the field. A month later she ran at
Ballinrobe where her trials in the West Of Ireland continued. This was Bank Holiday Monday in Northern Ireland so we organised a family trip to Tayto Park which isn't far from Fairyhouse and I thought wasn't far from Cullentra so I asked the yard if we could have a visit while we were down that direction (its actually about another 45 mins to Cullentra from the theme park). The February Stable Tour was cancelled and I'd missed the previous November one so it was over a year since I'd last been there. Alex very kindly arranged for Busty to show us around for an hour and we got to see Eliza in her paddock (she doesn't like being in a stable). I tried to give her a bit of a pep talk ahead of her run later that day at Ballinrobe but she's a timid thing and just walked away with her head down. It was the summer so there weren't as many horses about but most of ours were there. Flat To The Max had just joined us from Gigginstown with plenty of promise but he continued his downward spiral of form with us. Tapenade is an absolute gentleman. No surprise he was the pet of the yard. I'd love to hear about him winning a race. The Clonards and Cozy Sky were there too with the latter showing similar tenacity to Smiling Eliza. We arrived late in the morning so nearly all the horses had done their work. Not sure if Busty was struggling for what to show us but he brought us up to the office where I got my photo taken with Don Cossacks Gold Cup and Tiger Rolls Grand National Trophy. That was the start of a week of of cups and medals. 5 days later, I completed my first triathlon for a couple of years, Liverpool won the Champions League the same day and later that night Andy Ruiz shocked the world by beating Anthony Joshua to become Heavyweight Champion.
After Ballinrobe, we wouldn't see Eliza out again until mid July when she sensationally won at
Cork and then she tried to remake How The West Was Won by going chasing at the
Galway Festival. Unfortunately, this venture ended very abruptly with her falling at the first but luckily she was ok and was out again at Ballinrobe soon after. The final third of 2019 has been very wet so Eliza was out to grass when I returned to Cullentra for the
Club Stable Tour in November. These tours have to be the biggest selling point of the Gordon Elliott Racing Club. Seeing the superstar horses at work and spending time with them along with observing an elite racing yard in full flow is an experience I will never forget. The next best thing is having a horse like Smiling Eliza who not only got us into the winning enclosure on four occasions in little over a year but also ran at the big Irish festivals already mentioned and others like Irish Derby Weekend at
The Curragh. Even though I'm leaving the club I will continue to follow Smiling Elizas career as I have her in my stable on Sporting Life and get alerts whenever she runs. I've met some lovely people at the tours and races who I hope to see at courses again. After 2 years in the club and many emails, messages and the odd phone call, I was delighted to finally meet Racing Club Manager, Dean Walker, at the November tour. Thanks to David Betts and Bernie Leadon Bolger for sharing photos and to John Hand, Donal Smith, Fergal Whyte, Ollie McGuinness, Paddy Trainor and Barry Kinsella for the likes and retweets.
One of my other highlights from this year was interviewing
Jan Vokes. Ever since I watched the documentary Dark Horse about her baby, Dream Alliance, I've wanted to get involved in horse racing ownership. This was my first step on that road. I asked Jan what her perfect racing club looked like and now I'm asking myself the same question. GERC is an excellent club for all the reasons mentioned. It's a big, horse racing ownership experience with about 200 members from all over Ireland and the UK. The operative word being experience. After two years of experience, I'm looking for something I'm more involved in so my next move might be to start my own syndicate but it won't be happening any time soon. For now, I'll just enjoy watching horse racing and trying to pick winners.
It was great to see Fight For Love win for the club last week and now he has a few more entries over Christmas. Hopefully the momentum from that win continues into the new year and beyond. It's been a thrill and a pleasure to be involved with GERC. It's also been an education to see how horse racing is continuing to remain so popular. Twitter, though clearly not without its issues, provides a great platform for people like myself who love to write. I look forward to seeing how the younger generation like Samantha Martin and the Rein It In guys develop their careers in the world of racing, will Racing Blogger (Stephen Power) ever make it onto mainstream UK racing television and will some of my favourite racing writers like Steve Mullington, Ben Aitken and Stuart Williams get more recognition for their fantastic racing previews and analysis,
I would highly recommend anyone with an interest in getting involved in racehorse ownership, to dip their toe in with a racing club first and learn a bit more about it all. My perfect racing club would have smaller numbers of members and horses with elements of GERC and the Dream Syndicate. I also like what John Dance is doing with pre and post race jockey and trainer interviews in the paddock. A lot of customer satisfaction comes down to value for money but sport also has that very special ingredient - the winning feeling - and that experience of watching your horse winning is absolutely priceless.
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