Cullentra Stables Tour
On a gorgeous late winter morning, GERC met at Gordon Elliott Racing HQ to see the club horses and some of those heading to Cheltenham in a few weeks. It was a cold but sunny morning and first of all we had a wander around the many stables to see some of our horses in amongst more widely known horses like Ucello Conti, Diamond King, A Toi Phil and Sutton Manor. The first of our horses we came across was Bettatogether, the first horse who ran for the club this year. He had his head out looking to see what was going on and was very friendly as most of them were. Across the road in another big shed were Tapenade who is half brother of Gold Cup favourite Might Bite. He's only 4 or 5 and was only broken in back in the autumn. He's had a schooling session at Fairyhouse and has an entry for a bumper there at The Easter Festival I think. He's one that could be really good. We also saw Scealai Aonair, a new horse for the club this year. I believe we are leasing him from none other than The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins. Shirleys Gold Well was the other club horse in this shed. She had a run last May at somewhere called Grennan I hadn't heard of before. She won a mares maiden there and looks to be a year ahead of Tapenade. Interesting to see how she comes back this year. We also got to see the new superstar Samcro in his box having a good look around. He was a little bit like "don't touch me" when I tried to pat him on the neck. Maybe believing the hype already! He had his pick of a few races but is going in the Ballymore. Beside him was Cause of Causes who will go in the cross country at Cheltenham and we also got to see a son of Frankel, Commentariolus, racing royalty. I think he already won his first race so it'll be nice to watch his journey.
It was still misty when the days 2nd lot came back to the yard from gallops. As they walked past, you really got to appreciate how magnificent these animals are and small they seem in their stables. We got to see them walked from the dismount area over to the walkers. With the sweat making their coats gleam in the sun they all looked so muscular and impressive. They truly are the athletes of the equine world. I did notice one horse with an oxygen mask around his face but for so many people and horses in one place the overriding feeling was how peaceful it all was. We then took a walk down to a warm up area were all the horses from the next lot including the 4 we saw in the yard came in and did a few warm up laps before they headed down to the gallops. I didn't see Fairy Flute at all but I didn't go into every shed. I don't know how many horses they had there but there were horse boxes everywhere, even beside the toilets. And that wasn't even all of them. There are some out on the fields getting ready for the summer. The gallops is where you get to see the horses put through their paces. There is a viewing platform near the end where you can see them coming up the hill and fly past you. I think our horses were either first up or last up. There was a constant stream of horses and I couldn't tell them apart. On the way back down, the jockeys on our 4 horses stopped and Gordon Elliott gave us a talk about them and the others. He also told us about a new horse called Colonel Maximus who has joined us in place of poor old Ring Ben. Bettatogether had an entry for Fairyhouse and has since been declared. There was a lady walking around with us who I recognised but I couldn't put a name to. On the way back she asked us did we want to see an area she had designed for the horses to mess about in. When she started talking I recognised her as the trainer of 3 time Gold Cup winner Best Mate, Henrietta Knight. She was touring around some of the Irish yards and promoting a book.
Bettatogether, Scealai Aonair, Tapenade and Shirleys Goldwell came back up to the paddock for photos. Gordon and Henrietta were there too. We asked for some tips for cheltenham and we got one I think, Flawless Escape in the Martin Pipe. Gordon tipped it in the press the day before and it's odds halved. All and all it was a really great day. Even the bacon and sausage baguettes were class. Brilliant to see the operation in progress. It really does seem to go like clockwork. I asked Gordon's assistant, Busty about how it works, is it one stable person to a number of horses and he said they didn't work like that, they worked in lots. Would love to have got a few minutes with Gordon to ask him how he manages it all, in fairness he was there to be asked but didn't think of what I wanted to ask him until we were leaving. There was so much to take in. This was a part of the club benefits that I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.
It was still misty when the days 2nd lot came back to the yard from gallops. As they walked past, you really got to appreciate how magnificent these animals are and small they seem in their stables. We got to see them walked from the dismount area over to the walkers. With the sweat making their coats gleam in the sun they all looked so muscular and impressive. They truly are the athletes of the equine world. I did notice one horse with an oxygen mask around his face but for so many people and horses in one place the overriding feeling was how peaceful it all was. We then took a walk down to a warm up area were all the horses from the next lot including the 4 we saw in the yard came in and did a few warm up laps before they headed down to the gallops. I didn't see Fairy Flute at all but I didn't go into every shed. I don't know how many horses they had there but there were horse boxes everywhere, even beside the toilets. And that wasn't even all of them. There are some out on the fields getting ready for the summer. The gallops is where you get to see the horses put through their paces. There is a viewing platform near the end where you can see them coming up the hill and fly past you. I think our horses were either first up or last up. There was a constant stream of horses and I couldn't tell them apart. On the way back down, the jockeys on our 4 horses stopped and Gordon Elliott gave us a talk about them and the others. He also told us about a new horse called Colonel Maximus who has joined us in place of poor old Ring Ben. Bettatogether had an entry for Fairyhouse and has since been declared. There was a lady walking around with us who I recognised but I couldn't put a name to. On the way back she asked us did we want to see an area she had designed for the horses to mess about in. When she started talking I recognised her as the trainer of 3 time Gold Cup winner Best Mate, Henrietta Knight. She was touring around some of the Irish yards and promoting a book.
Bettatogether, Scealai Aonair, Tapenade and Shirleys Goldwell came back up to the paddock for photos. Gordon and Henrietta were there too. We asked for some tips for cheltenham and we got one I think, Flawless Escape in the Martin Pipe. Gordon tipped it in the press the day before and it's odds halved. All and all it was a really great day. Even the bacon and sausage baguettes were class. Brilliant to see the operation in progress. It really does seem to go like clockwork. I asked Gordon's assistant, Busty about how it works, is it one stable person to a number of horses and he said they didn't work like that, they worked in lots. Would love to have got a few minutes with Gordon to ask him how he manages it all, in fairness he was there to be asked but didn't think of what I wanted to ask him until we were leaving. There was so much to take in. This was a part of the club benefits that I was really looking forward to and it didn't disappoint.
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