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Cheltenham 2021 - Review

The week belongs to Henry De Bromhead, Rachael Blackmore and Jack Kennedy. Minella Indo won the Gold Cup having lost the RSA on the line this time last year. Everyone loves a comeback story and this is one because following that defeat there was a fall at Leopardstown at Christmas and a very ordinary run in February. I thought he was very overrated and even though he fit the age range  (the last 3 winners of the race were 7 or 8 years old), I over looked him for Al Boum Photo. Funnily enough it had the feel of when Al Boum Photo won in 2019 because there wasn't a lot of talk about him. I still expected him to be beaten even when he flew the last but A Plus Tard couldn't run him down. He proved me and the doubters wrong today by adding the top prize in National Hunt racing to that narrow second last year and the Albert Bartlett two years ago. What a Cheltenham record! Fantastic for Jack Kennedy as well. He's had some week too - Black Tears beating the hot favourite Concertis

Gordon Elliott - My Two Cents

On Saturday night, I was on The Guardian Talking Horses comments page lamenting Chris Cook (@claimsfive) had written his last article for the paper and debating whether racing was being phased out there for ethical reasons as it further embraced cancel culture. Someone took exception to me using this Trumpian term which led me to go into great detail by what I meant: ".....You are aware that horse racing is not universally loved? That there are many who see it as cruelty to animals not entertainment enjoyed by thousands and would like it cancelled? Last week, The Guardian had a piece on a matador who wanted to use video footage of him killing a bull in front of thousands of spectators in a country where many people enjoy this as entertainment. A lot of people around the world including, I would say, this paper would like to see bullfighting cancelled. I think a lot of the hardcore anti-racing community could point to double standards - your paper is highlighting bullfighting but you're also offering tips on the 3.35 at Kempton which we find equally abhorrent. I'm a big horse racing fan. I don't believe its cruel. It's horrible seeing horses lose their lives and I understand that when this happens it's fuel for those who hate it. So in a time of great change and revisionism that this paper reports in favour of, is it at all possible that they could be moving away from horse racing for what they see as ethical reasons?" Little did I know what was coming next.

Some time later, I saw the story break that Gordon Elliott was aware a picture of him was circulating on social media, sitting on a dead horse on his gallops and he was co-operating with the authorities. I didn't go looking for the picture. I've been avoiding twitter for the last few weeks ahead of probably never being off it over Cheltenham. My first thought was a story a friend of mine told me about her being ordered to sit on an injured and very distressed horse her late father had trained for point to point racing. The horse had fallen in the race and was brought back to the stable where the trainer, owner and vet assessed the situation very quickly, her dad took his young daughters hand and sat her down on the belly of the flailing horse beside him, a sheet was lifted so they couldn't see the horses face and without warning the vet shot the horse in the head to put it out of its misery. The more humane term is that the horse was euthanised. This was over 30 years ago and she still remembers it clear as day. Some people will see this as pure animal cruelty and others will see it as the saddest part of horse racing. I wondered was Gordon Elliott sitting on a stricken horse waiting on it to be euthanised? 

By all accounts Twitter racing went to war with itself on Saturday night over this. When Luis Suarez was charged with using racist language towards Patrice Evra, Liverpool fans became experts in law, lip reading and Spanish. Pro-Elliott twitterati became photoshop experts vehemently denying that the picture was real for a multitude of reasons. Late last night, a statement from Gordon Elliott admitted it was him sitting on a dead horse and all the photoshop experts were proved wrong. I read the statement which sounded like something from a Little Britain sketch or more recently from Dominic Cummings trying to explain why he'd broken lockdown. Now I had to see the photo. It wasn't hard to find. I looked at it and thought - oh no. It was 2.30am when I stopped scrolling through the comments on Twitter and I'd to get up for work at 8 albeit working from home.

I've been to Cullentra a few times as a paying member of a racing club. The horses looked very healthy and as well cared for as you would expect for a multimillion pound/euro operation that had won the biggest prizes in jumps racing. During a quiet time after the national hunt season a couple of years ago, I took my wife and son on a trip to an amusement park near Fairyhouse and as we were sort of in the vicinity, I asked the yard if we could call in and we got the green light to come ahead. Such was the love and devotion to the horses no one acknowledged my cute little 4 year old son walking around like he owned the place. The horses are the children at Cullentra. It's all about them. This was shortly after one of my favourite ever horses, Wicklow Brave ran a belter at Cheltenham and I was heralding Willie Mullins runner as the best ever dual purpose horse at rival Gordon Elliotts yard! Later in the year, Wicklow Brave fell and lost his life in the American Grand National, I've never been able to watch the race Gordon Elliott won the previous year with Jury Duty. "It happens" was again the reasoning of Gordon's assistant who showed me round and as a racing fan, I accept that. The racing club lost a horse on the gallops without ever seeing him race. We didn't own him, it was a racing ownership experience but it was still terribly sad news. Would it have been worse if I'd owned the horse outright and I'd paid my hard earned money only to be informed he'd been injured on the gallops without ever getting the chance to give me a return on my costs and had to be put down? Undoubtedly, yes it would have been but that's the game. The horse was called Ring Ben and I would have been horrified if I'd seen a picture of Gordon Elliott sitting on his carcass gesturing he needed to stay there a bit longer while he spoke on the phone. At the very least, it's totally disrespectful to the poor horse.

I've stood and listened to Gordon Elliott give us updates on our horses or deliver final instructions to Jockeys at the races. I can't claim to know him. When I joined the racing club, I started writing a blog about my experiences going to races, watching races on tv, going to stable tours because I love writing. As I got into it a bit more I sent them an email asking if I could interview Gordon for the racing club blog but really to try and find out what makes him so successful. I doubt the request ever got further than Alex in the office, which is fine. She's doing what any good gatekeeper does, filtering what's important through to the boss so he can get on with being one of the best trainers of all time. I don't have any gripes about that or my time in the Gordon Elliott Racing Club, I'm not here to stick the boot in when he's down. My first race was on a cold January night in Dundalk. I went into the restaurant for my free and very welcome bowl of hot soup and there was Gordon Elliott sitting on his own eating his dinner and looking at his phone. In fairness, he always seems to be on the phone. I've been there again since and Johnny Murtagh was sitting at the next table over. These are two of the biggest stars in all of racing just being very normal. I feel that's something that makes racing unique. I don't know if they'd have appreciated being interrupted for a photo but does any famous person really like being bothered for a selfie ever? At the club stable tour in the middle of the media days ahead of Cheltenham 2018, my mate asked could he get a photo with him and he agreed but it felt more like obligation. I got my photo taken next and my mate told Gordon "fuck sake smile will ya" which I'm sure he didn't appreciate. At the same time, we're paying hundreds of pounds for the pleasure. A year later, I was at Fairyhouse when all the talk was of our star, Smiling Eliza, going to Cheltenham, initially for the Triumph Hurdle having won a big race at Punchestown. Next thing she was running in a charity race which I never really understood but he had to find balance because if he didn't run the horses and there were no days out then people would be complaining. Smiling Elizas form dipped over the winter on the soft ground and after another disappointing run at Fairyhouse, he saw us coming towards him and shouted over "Fred Winter" I tried to engage him further as he headed towards the weighing room for the next race "Fred Winter, Fred Winter" he repeated before disappearing inside. I've worked for self made men similar in personality to Gordon and they were always on the move, not big on detail, giving minimal information as they went. 

In the end, Eliza didn't go to Cheltenham, she never had the rating anyway. The next talk was that she was going to be covered which is a nice way of saying they were going to try and get her impregnated. I mentioned this to my friend who was traumatised by her dads horse being put down all those years ago "Do you know how they do that?" she exclaimed. I didn't. "Well I don't know how they do it in the professional world but they tied the mares hind legs to a rope attached to the ceiling and the stallion is brought in to mount her. It's horrible but that's what happens". Again this was over thirty years ago. She loves horses and horse racing as I do. I don't know how it's done in the professional world either and I'd love to imagine Smiling Elizas parents Rock Of Gibraltar and Gift Dancer were sent out in the field together for a while with a picnic then they came back and the mare is in foal but I doubt it given the astronomical amounts paid for stud fees. There's probably one shot at it so everything has to be done to maximise this no matter how awful it seems. If I'm wrong I apologise but we have to acknowledge there is an accepted level of cruelty by race fans that anti-racing protesters find absolutely disgusting. Start with how racehorses reproduce then just the fact they are being made to work or that theres a man sitting on a horses back, putting them in horse boxes for travelling to races, making them jump a fence, hitting them with a whip, a metal bar in the the mouth with reins attached to make them do what we want, running them until they're exhausted and/or drop dead, jumping them over dangerous fences and they fall and die for the love of money not the animal, all the way up to sitting on a dead horse on the gallops. Every single aspect of horse racing is cruel to them and this picture just confirms what they think happens every day. 

We had a new horse running at Downpatrick one afternoon. I made the trip over and as usual we met with Gordon and the Jockey, Davy Russell, on this occasion before hand. I asked about the new horse, a nice grey called Forrardon Xmoor, was he likely to run well, should I put any money on. We were told he had won and been placed a few times for his previous trainer "we'll see how he goes and if not we can sell him and get another one". Race horses are a commodity. Elliott isn't just a trainer, he's a buyer and he spots horses for all levels. I wrote at the time "The race wasn't long started as he went past the stand the first time but when he went down the hill to the next and back up again, I couldn't believe it looked like he was being pulled up so soon after the start and then it was confirmed by the announcer. I watched to see if Davy was going to walk back up past us then the next thing was I saw the Horse Ambulance go down towards them and the grey was loaded into the back. He was still upright when they went past me in the car park but I did hear a loud whinny come from him. We were informed later that he had severed a tendon and had to be put down so what I thought was a whinny was more likely a roar of pain. Poor big fella". My emotions went from this horse is useless to god help this poor horse. There are so many contradictions. I was involved in horse racing for a year at that point, if you're in it all your life, unfortunately you're gonna be around a lot of dead horses. Even on TV there is so much respect for a superstar horse until he/she loses the man or woman on its' back and then they just become the loose horse who could cause havoc for the remainder of the field. On one level these animals are in our care but they've also got to be shown who is boss because they're bought or bred for racing and I don't mean that in a cruel way. One of the biggest names in Irish racing lost the rag on tv once over a horse who refused to race, saying that sort of oul horse needs told what's what and many racing fans watching that probably just agreed.

I wonder if Chris Cook was glad he left The Guardian on Saturday as another earth shattering blow was dealt to the sport he loves on Sunday morning. This should have been a time of great anticipation of a first Cheltenham festival behind closed doors but it is now being overshadowed by another scandal. Something to remember in all of this is it's Gordon Elliott Racing not just Gordon Elliott the man. I don't believe this is typical of him or the people who work for him. The assistants, riders, grooms, stable and office staff look after and train over 200 horses. I've met a few of them at races or on twitter or at the stables, they seem to be great at their jobs and love doing what they do as part of a very successful yard. What their leader was thinking, sitting on one of his horses who just died, I'll never know. It was very wrong, it should be condemned and he deserves a suitable punishment but I don't think it should be a lifetime ban, if this was a one off. There is a degree of hypocrisy among some in the racing community who have rounded on him and are calling for his head including the gambling firm whose garb he always seemed to be wearing when the going was good. In these times of great change and revisionism, will it be Gordon Elliott or even horse racing in general cancelled next?








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