Trainer Profile

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Gordon Elliott began his racing career as a teenager working for Tony Martin at weekends and during school holidays. Having taken out his amateur rider's license at the age of 16, he went on to be a prolific rider both in the point-to-point field and on the racecourse. He rode a total of 46 winners on the racecourse, the highlight being his win in the Punchestown Champion Bumper on the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained King's Road in 1998. He also rode as an amateur for Martin Pipe.

Having hung up his riding boots at the end of 2005, he began to concentrate on his new career as a trainer the following year. Gordon Elliott came to worldwide attention when training Silver Birch (Robbie Power) to win the Aintree Grand National in 2007, a success made all the more remarkable by the fact that, at the time, he had yet to train a winner in Ireland. Gordon trained five winners in Britain before his first success at home.

Don Cossack (Bryan Cooper) gave him another major success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March, 2016 and he sent out his first winner at Royal Ascot when Commissioned (Adam Kirby) landed the Queen Alexandra Stakes in June of the same year. Gordon recorded a treble on the opening day of the 2017 Cheltenham Festival when Labaik (Jack Kennedy), Apple's Jade (Bryan Cooper) and Tiger Roll (Lisa O'Neill) all won. Gordon was the leading trainer at the Festival for the first time in 2017 with six winners. He was the leading trainer again the following year with a record-equalling (at the time) eight winners. That figure was eclipsed by Willie Mullins' 10 winners in 2022. 

Gordon went very close to winning his first National Hunt trainers' championship in the 2016/2017 season. He led all the way until the penultimate day of the season, but while he missed out on the coveted crown, he did match Willie Mullins' tally of 193 winners, a record for the number of winners in a season (at the time), set in 2012/2013.

It was reported that Gordon trained his 1,000th winner on the racecourse when Moonday Sun, ridden by Davy Russell, won at Punchestown on May 31, 2017. Gordon enjoyed his first Group race success on the Flat when the Declan McDonogh-ridden Beckford won the Group 2 Gain Railway Stakes at the Curragh on July 1, 2017. 

Gordon became the first trainer to capture all three Grade 1s on the card at the Winter Festival at Fairyhouse. On Sunday, December 3, 2017, he won the Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle with Mengli Khan (Jack Kennedy), the Hatton's Grace Hurdle with Apple's Jade (Jack Kennedy) and the Drinmore Novice Chase with Death Duty (Davy Russell). 

Gordon won the most valuable race on the Irish calendar when General Principle, ridden by JJ Slevin, won the BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on Easter Monday, April 2, 2018. It was his first success in the race. 

A treble at Downpatrick on Sunday, March 25, 2018 saw Gordon set a new record (at the time) of 194 winners in a season. He reached the 200 winner mark, the first trainer to do so in a National Hunt season, for the 2017/2018 season when the Declan Lavery-ridden Portnablagh won the Cork & Waterford Mares' Point-To-Point INH Flat Race at Cork on Easter Monday, April 2, 2018. He ended the season on 210 winners, two behind champion trainer Willie Mullins who set a new record of 212. 

Tiger Roll gave Gordon his second success in the Aintree Grand National when winning under Davy Russell on Saturday, April 14, 2018. Tiger Roll and Russell won the race again the following year to write themselves into Grand National history. Tiger Roll was the first horse to win the race back-to-back since Red Rum in 1973 and 1974. The day before the win, Elliott saddled his 50th Grade 1 success when the Jack Kennedy-ridden Felix Desjy won the Betway Top Novices' Hurdle at Aintree. 

Gordon brought his tally at the Cheltenham Festival to 32 when he saddled seven winners at the meeting in 2020. He served an IHRB suspension for six months in 2021 and had no runners at the Festival that year but bounced back with two winners at the meeting the following year, extending his festival tally to 34 winners.  

Gordon became the first trainer to saddle seven winners at one meeting in Ireland or Britain when dominating the card at Navan on Saturday, December 4, 2021. He had shared the record of six winners at the same meeting (set at Navan on Sunday, November 27, 2016) with Willie Mullins and Paul Nicholls but went one better with seven of the eight winners at the same course a little over five years later. On both occasions, Willie Mullins was the only other trainer to send out a winner at the meeting.