The year 2007 feels like a lifetime ago: just look how much has changed in the world since then.
But in Irish National Hunt racing, one thing has remained constant: the complete dominance of Willie Mullins as the premier trainer over obstacles.
The 2024/25 season is underway, with Mullins eyeing a 17th consecutive Champion Trainer title – first won in 2007.
However, it’s his friendly rival – Gordon Elliott – that is setting the pace at the head of the standings…
Long Way to Go
There’s so much racing still to come in the National Hunt season, which rolls through until next April.
But Elliott will be hoping to use his early-campaign form as a springboard for success in the sport’s major festivals. The Cheltenham ante-post betting odds give him a strong chance, too: Teahupoo (9/4) and Irish Point (12/1) are expected to go well in the Stayers’ Hurdle, while Gerri Colombe (12/1) may be a contender in the Gold Cup after finishing second in the 2024 renewal.
The Cheltenham Festival results from last year also confirm Elliott’s wins with Stellar Story and Better Days Ahead, while hardy veterans Delta Work and Galvin will be expected to go well in the Cross Country Chase after its absence from the 2024 edition of the meeting due to a waterlogged track.
Talk about leaving it late 😲
Stellar Story denies The Jukebox Man to win the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle#ITVRacing | #CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/hHY99G0dzn
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) March 15, 2024
In addition to Gerri Colombe, Elliott also saddled four other runners-up at the March festival and five third-place finishers, so there’s plenty of strength in depth at his Cullentra yard.
And he will need all of those horses to come to the fore in 2024/25 if he is to wrestle the Champion Trainer trophy from the mantelpiece of Mullins, where it has sat gathering dust since 2007.
It’s testament to both his ability as a trainer and also his gift for attracting the best horses from the leading owners and breeders, so the rest of the Irish training community will need Mullins to have an off-year if they are to have any chance of upending his dominance.
For Elliott, at least he has started the 2024/25 season in fine fashion…
Fast Out of the Gate
The meat of the National Hunt campaign is still yet to get underway, but Elliott already has more than €800,000 (£685,000) in prize money to his name.
Much of that has been claimed from action at Galway, where Elliott has enjoyed a stellar time of things in July and into August.
The Wallpark landed a valuable handicap hurdle on August 3 at the venue, staying on well in a race ran at an electric pace – five of the 18-strong field being pulled up.
A day earlier, veteran chaser Battleoverdoyen rolled back the years, defying a four-year age gap to Moonovercloon to head off Matthew Smith’s horse by a nose – clinching a handsome £40,000 payday for his connections at the age of eleven.
Incredible scenes! Eleven years young, one of our favourite old boys Battleoverdoyen somehow gets his head home in front from Moonovercloon in the @GuinnessIreland Galway Blazers Chase at @Galway_Races under Danny Gilligan pic.twitter.com/UcgsgZ4Up9
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) August 2, 2024
Prior to that, in the Grade 3 Galway Plate on July 31, Duffle Coat made a mockery of his 25/1 odds to run a fantastic race – beating the well-fancied Perceval Legallois and former Cheltenham Festival contender Zanahiyr, but finishing in second place behind Pinkerton.
It’s been an excellent start to the campaign for Elliott; can he carry that form through the rest of the season?
