A few years ago, Gordon Elliott took what looked at the time a bit of a gamble when he upped sticks from his base in Trim where he had trained a Grand National winner and relocated to a new state of the art training establishment just a few miles down the road outside Longwood.

As it transpired, it has been a seamless transition and in a game that is all about results, Elliott has saddled 83 winners so far this season both here and in Britain.

He has some serious fire power in a yard that is largely dominated by progressive young horses.

“It is a funny game and we were all upset when Balbriggan had to be put down at Aintree last Saturday, but then the very next day, Don Cossack won the Grade 1 Durkan Chase and then Mala Beach looked very good when he won what looked a very good beginners’ chase,” stated Elliott.

“It is a hard game and we have lost some good horses this year, but you have to keep looking ahead and we have the best team of horses that we’ve ever had. Some of them are only babies and they will be minded, but my owners want winners and my job is to have them ready to win when I can find a suitable race for them. If that means that we have to travel to England, that is what we’ll do,” he added.

“But we have a better class of horse in the yard now and we are always on the look-out for new horses. We have some lovely young three and four-year-olds coming through and they will either go for a bumper or a point-to-point. We will let them find their feet and they will tell us when they are ready to go – if you force them to do too much, you will have no horse after a while. You must be patient and thankfully I have a great bunch of owners who let me get on with the job and I couldn’t be happier how the season has gone to date.”