Gordon Elliott relishing Punchestown Festival challenge despite slim title hopes

The fact Gordon Elliott is over €150,000 clear of Willie Mullins at the head of the Irish trainers’ championship – and is not even contemplating securing a first title – says plenty about the size of the task he faces on an annual basis.

It is almost a given that Mullins will win the majority of the Grade One prizes at the upcoming Punchestown Festival and once again knock Elliott off top spot to claim his 20th championship.

For context the master of Closutton is responsible for five of the six potential runners in the Punchestown Gold Cup on Wednesday, a race with a total prize fund of €300,000. The meeting itself carries in excess of €3.5million in prize-money through the week.

For Elliott, though, it has been another strong season, with the 11 Grade Ones he has won just two shy of his personal best, giving him the opportunity to at least match if not pass that number in County Kildare.

“We have €4.5m in prize-money won in Ireland and a million in the UK,” said Elliott.

“We’ve over 200 winners between both sides of the (Irish) sea and we have 11 Grade One winners trained this season – 13 has been our best ever season. And we have a chance of maybe getting one or two more to get to that at Punchestown. So we’ve had a good season.

“As far as being champion trainer, and I’ve said it all along, I don’t think we’ve got any chance. I think we’re four or five years off being where we want to be to win something like that. But I’m very proud of what we have achieved.

“Being champion was all I ever thought of, and I still do, but we probably made a lot of wrong decisions before, running horses a little too often and in the wrong places, whereas now I’m sort of sitting back and breathing. If it happens – when it happens – we’ll enjoy it a lot more.”

Of Mullins, he added: “You’re talking about the greatest trainer of all time, being talked about with Vincent O’Brien and Tom Dreaper – and we’re leading going into the last week of the season, so it’s been an unbelievable year. .

“Being second in the championship 14 times, as we will be after this one, just makes you want it even more.

“The first couple of years he was champion trainer, he was winning €1.5-2m. It’s amazing, when you look at it. What we’re doing now, if Willie wasn’t around, we’d have been champion trainer every year since God was a child, so you’ve got to be proud of what we have achieved.

“It (Punchestown) is festival we’re really looking forward to and we’re hoping to get a few winners at it. I’m probably going into it in a real good place, because I know I have no chance of being champion trainer.

“If I went into it €500,000 clear it’d be squeaky bum time and I’d probably get nailed on the last day by Willie like he did a couple of years ago (2018)!

“But now I’m going into it enjoying it. We’ve had a great season.”

Elliott’s jockey Jack Kennedy is five clear in the jockeys’ standings, though, and looks on course to win a second championship.

“Maybe some day we could do it together,” said Kennedy.

“Obviously, I would love Gordon to get his (title), whatever happens with me, but it’s a brilliant operation to be part of. I’m very lucky.”