Under Starters Orders
I joined the Gordon Elliott Racing Club in December 2017 after seeing a racing club in England celebrate their horse winning a Saturday race live on ITV. I had no idea that such a thing existed but after a search on Google I discovered GERC. I sent an email that night expressing an interest and requesting further information and I got a reply on the Monday morning with information about the horses the club "owned", open days at Cullentra stables to see the horses on the gallops and tickets to the races whenever the horses run (with 170 odd members for the most popular races there is a ballot for free tickets).
The first thing to say is that I'm a huge National Hunt Horse Racing fan. I've been into the horses for about half my life. Before I was even into horses I was giving people tips. I worked in a casino in Leeds once and was asked by a punter if I had any good tips for horses - being Irish and all. I told him about a horse called "Florida Peach" I'd heard about on the radio at half time in the football earlier that day. The horse turned out to be "Florida Pearl" and if he was able to decipher it he'd have had some fun with him over the next few years. My love for horses started with the Grand National when I was young. My da would always pick a horse for us. Mine seemed to be Grease Paint for years. I probably started following racing more closely after winning a few pound on Earth Summit in 1998 and with Cheltenham on over St. Patricks Day, I usually got to see at least one day of the festival. All my trips to the races to date have been to my local course Down Royal for the November meeting which used to be a good warm up for the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day. I've seen a great race between Beef or Salmon and War of Attrition. I've also seen the great Kauto Star win handily. The last time I was there, Ruby Walsh came walking past and stopped for a photo. When I was in Australia 10 years ago, I went to Caulfield to see one of the big flat races, the Cox Plate. I'm not so interested in the flat but I'd watch the Derby and the Prix De l'Arc de Triomphe every year. One of the greatest horse racing buzzes I had was listening to Sea The Stars win the Arc while driving home. Not sure why I listened to it as I'm sure I would have had it recorded and normally I'd avoid all media and watch it when I got home. I'm glad I did listen to it as it was absolutely thrilling.
And that's why I'm into horse racing. I'm not a big gambler. I hate losing money and the size of my bets reflects that. I put on a small amount to try and win a big amount. I love watching horses run and jump over fences. I love sitting on a saturday morning and picking a horse in each televised race on ITV (or Channel 4 as it was before), stick on an each way super heinz bet and do the Sporting Life Pick 7 then sit down in the afternoon (or at some stage of the day, I'm married with a 3 year old son) and watch it. The thrill of watching a horse I pick or have a small bet on winning a race often had me thinking "what would it be like to own a horse that won a race?"
It's long been a dream of mine to own a horse at some stage of my life. There's a possibility of that happening but it's not going to be today or tomorrow plus I know nothing about owning or keeping a racehorse. GERC is a racehorse ownership experience. We have 8 horses both flat racing and national hunt horses (some that run in the winter and some that run in the summer so we theoretically have horses running all year round). These are not Grade 1 horses. They're not owned by Michael O'Leary and run at the Cheltenham Festival, they're the sort of horses that run every day of the week in races with prize money of about €6000 for winning. There is a dividend of the winnings to be divided among members based on how long they've been in the club for a given year. I don't think it will be a lot of money divided between 170 people but I believe the plan is to get better quality horses.
It's all about the experience. We don't own the horses but then again we don't have to worry about anything happening to them or vet bills which I'm sure could soon suck the fun out of it. I'm looking forward to seeing the horses in training, seeing them race and hopefully getting in the winners enclosure a few times. The biggest bonus is that Gordon Elliott is the heir to Willie Mullins as the best horse trainer in Ireland. So I'm now a member of the Gordon Elliott Racing Club and this is my year in horse racing.
https://gordonelliottracing.co.uk/racing-club-2/
The first thing to say is that I'm a huge National Hunt Horse Racing fan. I've been into the horses for about half my life. Before I was even into horses I was giving people tips. I worked in a casino in Leeds once and was asked by a punter if I had any good tips for horses - being Irish and all. I told him about a horse called "Florida Peach" I'd heard about on the radio at half time in the football earlier that day. The horse turned out to be "Florida Pearl" and if he was able to decipher it he'd have had some fun with him over the next few years. My love for horses started with the Grand National when I was young. My da would always pick a horse for us. Mine seemed to be Grease Paint for years. I probably started following racing more closely after winning a few pound on Earth Summit in 1998 and with Cheltenham on over St. Patricks Day, I usually got to see at least one day of the festival. All my trips to the races to date have been to my local course Down Royal for the November meeting which used to be a good warm up for the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day. I've seen a great race between Beef or Salmon and War of Attrition. I've also seen the great Kauto Star win handily. The last time I was there, Ruby Walsh came walking past and stopped for a photo. When I was in Australia 10 years ago, I went to Caulfield to see one of the big flat races, the Cox Plate. I'm not so interested in the flat but I'd watch the Derby and the Prix De l'Arc de Triomphe every year. One of the greatest horse racing buzzes I had was listening to Sea The Stars win the Arc while driving home. Not sure why I listened to it as I'm sure I would have had it recorded and normally I'd avoid all media and watch it when I got home. I'm glad I did listen to it as it was absolutely thrilling.
And that's why I'm into horse racing. I'm not a big gambler. I hate losing money and the size of my bets reflects that. I put on a small amount to try and win a big amount. I love watching horses run and jump over fences. I love sitting on a saturday morning and picking a horse in each televised race on ITV (or Channel 4 as it was before), stick on an each way super heinz bet and do the Sporting Life Pick 7 then sit down in the afternoon (or at some stage of the day, I'm married with a 3 year old son) and watch it. The thrill of watching a horse I pick or have a small bet on winning a race often had me thinking "what would it be like to own a horse that won a race?"
It's long been a dream of mine to own a horse at some stage of my life. There's a possibility of that happening but it's not going to be today or tomorrow plus I know nothing about owning or keeping a racehorse. GERC is a racehorse ownership experience. We have 8 horses both flat racing and national hunt horses (some that run in the winter and some that run in the summer so we theoretically have horses running all year round). These are not Grade 1 horses. They're not owned by Michael O'Leary and run at the Cheltenham Festival, they're the sort of horses that run every day of the week in races with prize money of about €6000 for winning. There is a dividend of the winnings to be divided among members based on how long they've been in the club for a given year. I don't think it will be a lot of money divided between 170 people but I believe the plan is to get better quality horses.
It's all about the experience. We don't own the horses but then again we don't have to worry about anything happening to them or vet bills which I'm sure could soon suck the fun out of it. I'm looking forward to seeing the horses in training, seeing them race and hopefully getting in the winners enclosure a few times. The biggest bonus is that Gordon Elliott is the heir to Willie Mullins as the best horse trainer in Ireland. So I'm now a member of the Gordon Elliott Racing Club and this is my year in horse racing.
https://gordonelliottracing.co.uk/racing-club-2/
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