GORDON ELLIOTT, who will be pulling out all the stops at next week’s Punchestown Festival in his bid to be crowned champion trainer in Ireland for the first time, is set to lose a key member of his staff next week when one of his assistants, Olly Murphy, sets out into the cold wide world as a rookie trainer across the water.

The move will be a huge wrench for Murphy, who has been at Elliott’s for the last four years and been on hand to see the popular Co. Meath trainer make the steady climb to the top of the training tree.

Few could have envisaged the mighty Willie Mullins being toppled from his perch, but Gordon has grafted his way to the summit and his assistant who, from the age of 16, always had his heart set on training, is intent on doing the same as he embarks on his new challenge.

The affable 25 year-old, who still has a few odds and ends to tie up before getting his dual-purpose trainer’s licence rubber-stamped by the BHA, is a son of Stratford-on-Avon trainer Anabel Murphy and Irish-born bloodstock agent Aiden Murphy.

He will be cushioned by the fact that his fledgling 30 box yard is adjacent to his mother’s establishment in the heart of the country, four miles from Stratford racecourse, which means fewer overheads. He admits: “I’m lucky enough to be going back to a big establishment at home and am very fortunate that I’m not having to pay rent.”

IDENTICAL

Olly has already taken a leaf out of Gordon’s book by installing an almost identical four-furlong plus Wexford sand gallop to the one of those in use at Elliott’s. However he is in no rush to send out his first runners and doesn’t expect to do so until the middle of June, explaining: “I’ll go home and get used to my surroundings and then knuckle down.

“I’d like to think I’ll start out with 10 or 12 summer NH horses, get them going during the summer and bringing them to the North of England, the same as Gordon did.”

As Olly said: “I’ve tried to keep my eyes and ears open. As simple as it sounds, I’ve learnt from the best, so why go home and change anything. I’ll keep my routine the same as Gordon’s. I’ve a small team set up at home with years of experience between them.”

Olly, who clocked up around 30 winners between the flags in Britain and five more on the track, joined Gordon just before Punchestown 2013 after spending a couple of summers with the trainer and 18 months with Alan King plus a further spell with Brian Meehan and has been an invaluable part of the team at Cullentra Stables ever since.

He has put that time to good use by gaining valuable experience in all the respective roles involved in the day-to-day training of racehorses. His duties ranged from riding out, looking after owners, travelling to England with the stable’s runners and making the entries and declarations, commenting: “I’ve been involved in the whole operation and have been lucky enough to see Gordon and the yard grow and develop from being just a bare farmyard. I’ve seen so many changes.”

Olly said: “I’ve loved my time over here. Much as I’m looking forward to going home, the last day will be a sad day, because it’s been the best four years of my life. My time here will always be close to my heart and I’d love to come back as much as I can.”

Gordon’s team has expanded from 65 to 70 horses riding out, since Murphy first joined the trainer to a squad of over 150 horses who have access to four or five different gallops. “What he has done in such a short space of time is just phenomenal and, if I wasn’t moving home to start training, I’d be here for the next 20 years,” said Olly.

The duo share a mutual respect and the rookie trainer gained further confidence and insight into the ownership game by setting up six or seven Irish-based good fun syndicates with Zoe Winston in the office.

He explained: “I sourced all the horses in the sales and it was a case of ‘on my head be it,’ but the horses included Broughtons Star and Water Sprite. That was part of my job, but I got a great buzz out of it.”

Olly considers Gordon’s biggest strength to be “his ability to win with a bad horse, as much as a good one. That’s his biggest attribute and I think that’s the biggest compliment you can pay any trainer, when he can win a race with a horse no one else seems able to win a race with.”

Elliott, who knows the trainer’s championship will go right down to the wire, commenting: “It will be a hard battle, but we’ll keep trying,” is right behind Murphy as he bids to make a go of training in his own right. He said: “Olly has been a big part of the team.

“I’m sure he will get on well when he goes. He’s learnt plenty and we’ll help him all the way we can. He has a good way about him with people and is a nice person.”

For Gordon to win the trainer’s championship would represent the icing on the cake of a magnificent season for Team Elliott. Olly remarked: “If he did it, it would be a massive achievement on his behalf and that of his staff.

“It’s something different. Willie is the most unbelievable man, but Gordon challenging him for the title has made it more exciting for the public who didn’t think it could be done. It will be a feather in Gordon’s cap if he can do it and is something he should be proud of.

“When I joined him first he was a young trainer coming on the scene, but now he’s only going the one way! He’s had the most unbelievable season, regardless of what happens by a country mile with six winners at Cheltenham and the most winners in a season, but we still have plenty of darts to throw at the board for Punchestown and hopefully some of them will stick.