THE question asked was: “Do you ever pinch yourself when you are in the parade ring with the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and those type of guys?”

“Every time I walk around the yard in the evenings and look at the horses you have and the place, I pinch myself,” was the reply.

Cullentra Stables has been 11 years in the making, and Gordon Elliott’s entry to the elite level in jump racing came suddenly with Silver Birch’s Grand National win 17 years ago, so it’s worthy of sitting back with a bit of pride. Not that you’ll find that coming to the surface.

It’s a dull drizzly winter morning, but the lights go on early at Cullentra. Work begins at 6am. Floodlights have been installed on the gallops to aid an early start. “It takes the pressure off, we start at 6 and finish at 4.30pm.”

By the time the press crew drift in, all the hard work is done. Horses are being washed down, the older boys, Galvin and Coco Beach are relaxed in opposite ends of the first row of boxes. There are many heads over boxes everywhere.

“We’ve done a lot of rebuilding over the last few years and it’s exciting times.

“We built a few more boxes, we’d have around 186 horses, 40 ride out each lot. Like Mick Easterby said, I don’t know them all, but I’d know if one was missing,” Elliott said.

“From the lad in here to feed first thing in the morning, to the lad mucking out, the girls in the office, it’s a big machine. We have an excellent bunch of staff.”

And what should the priorities be for those in charge? “Improve the game, look after owners better. 90% of the racecourses do a wonderful job. We try to please everyone, but we need to look after the owners we have.”

Never stops

“There is too much racing, we are diluting it, prize money is disappointing, eight races and 35 minutes in between, it makes a long day. It never stops for us, it’s 12 months a year.”

That said, the drive to keep at the cutting edge keeps going. “People talk about should Cheltenham go to five days, or six days, well, if Cheltenham was over 10 days, I’d be there 10 days in a row, there’s no doubt about that.”

Most of the big names will emerge by next weekend, to add to a good start with his novices. They are the core of the yard. Away from the two big Irish meetings, The Waldpark, winner of his last four races, now to run in the McManus colours, looks set for another spin in Britain.

“He doesn’t do anything fancy at home but he keeps winning, his win at Cheltenham was probably as good as he’s had. We are probably looking at going Long Walk Hurdle with him. He’s probably 5 or 6lb below the best in England, we’ll roll the dice.”

Many of the novices have already put their first wins on the board, with last year’s high class bumper horse Jalon D’oudairies also set to make a belated debut before Christmas, following a small setback. “He’s back cantering, he’s good.”

The mare Familiar Dreams will also make her hurdling debut soon.“It was too fast for her in America. She jumps well.”

The trainer would also advise not to give up on Navan beaten favourite Qualimita. “I thought she was one of the picks of the week, maybe she’s hard on herself. I was disappointed, I think she’s a good mare.”

On the juvenile front, the yard is “light, very light, struggling to buy them at the moment, they are going so much money.”

Too much money is relative though! The new recruits on show this morning, now rising five, make up about €1 million in potential.

The 25-length Castletown-Geoghegan point winner Koktail Brut (Cokoriko) for Patrick Turley, was a €250,000 Goffs Punchestown Sale purchase for Gigginstown House Stud.

Ma Jacks Hill (Famous Name) a €310,000 purchase for Gigginstown after a Dromahane success for Ciaran Fennessy and He Can’t Dance (Jukebox Jury), who made £300,000 at Goffs Aintree to wear the Gigginstown colours after Rob James trained him to a Monksgrange success. British point-to-point winner, Kalypso’chance (Masked Marvel), £85,000 at Tattersalls Cheltenham April sale, is the cheapest on this gallop.

And the top lot from the recent Cheltenham sale, Kovanis (Tunis) at £330,000 joins the band for a racecourse debut next spring. The eyes and spies are always looking for the ‘next big thing’.

“Eddie, Mouse and Mags would source all the horses for me.” The point-to-point fields are still one of the first points of call. Asked if the phone rings on a Sunday evening?

“Sometimes you’d get a call the Saturday before the race, watch this horse, you know if there is something coming out.”

Best riders

While the yard is building on a batch of talented novices, it is also holding the hand for the best band of young riders.

While Kennedy was injured in 2023, Elliott went back to Davy Russell, saying the younger riders needed time to come to the big stages, but all look ready to step up now. Sam Ewing made hay while Kennedy missed time earlier this month.

“Jack is number one, but the lads are biting at his tail. There is no number two, Danny, Sam, Jordan, they share it between them and whoever gets the bounce of the ball. Danny was supposed to ride the Troytown winner, Sam got the bounce of the ball in Down Royal. If something happened to Jack, I’d say he’d be hard to beat.”

“Josh (Williamson) is very good, we’ve got a great bunch of lads and Harry (Swan) for riding the bumper horses. Josh Halford is a very good rider too.”

It’s exciting times and perhaps a bit of excitement before the ‘Here’s Willie’ arrival, but there’s no doubt the Elliott team are off and running for another big season.

ELLIOTT ON ...

“I was very proud of him, Jack is here since he was 12 or 13 years of age. He’s a big part of the team. I was probably as happy as he was. He’s had a lot of breaks, but he keeps bouncing back. There’s no airs and graces with Jack, he comes in every day, just takes Mondays off.”

“Staff is the biggest headache. Our staff tend to stay, but we’re lucky. Insurance is a problem. When I was young, you’d be in the yard from 12 years of age, you can’t do that now. It’s unfortunate for the next generation.”

Elliott enjoys two ventures to the US jumps meetings, Nashville in May and Far Hills in October.

“America was brilliant,” (Galvin just touched off in the American National).

Coko Beach was also unlucky in making a bold bid for the famous Pardubice in the Czech Republic.

“I’d like to go back and try and win it, it’s never been won by an Irish horse, the race is amazing. I’d like to have a go at the race in Japan too, that Willie won (Nakayama Grand Jump/Blackstairmountain). I’d love to have a runner in the Melbourne Cup, if I had one fast enough.”

To the Cross-County Chase becoming a handicap. “I think it’s a disgrace. Those older Gold Cup horses like Minella Indo, there’s no where for them to go.”

“I was disappointed with him (at Down Royal). For me, he was beaten after a couple of fences, he never really looked like he travelled or jumped.

“We’ll probably go for the Savills now, we’ll keep going the route we wanted to go, but he didn’t run his race, he didn’t finish it out. The one thing he does, he always gives you everything, but I thought the writing was on the wall very early on. But that’s the game we’re in, we found a couple of things and we’ll iron them out.”

“I looked at the pictures!”