WERE Definitly Red and Wounded Warrior to clear the last and battle it up the longest straight in National Hunt racing in pursuit of a slice of history today at Aintree, there would be a select group of people experiencing vivid sensations of dejá vu.
It was just over four years ago, in a Maralin maiden on March 9th, 2013 that the then Gordon Elliott-trained Wounded Warrior responded to the urgings of Jamie Codd to hold off Noel McParlan and Definitly Red, the latest product of the Brian Hamilton nursery.
Neither was favourite for the contest. That was Colin McKeever’s Straidnahanna, who ended up well adrift of the pair, despite having the considerable expertise of Derek O’Connor to call upon.
Straidnahanna is now a member of Sue Smith’s Craiglands Farm string and was slated to take part in the Topham Chase yesterday. With the duo that upset the odds at Maralin contesting the Randox Health Grand National, it seems that the Dennison Commercials Ltd 4yo maiden proved an early trial for National fences - maybe that’s why nothing else finished.
MEADE’S YARD
Wounded Warrior made the short journey to Noel Meade’s to get his rules career under way. He has shown plenty of promise but had his difficulties. Meade is convinced that the Gigginstown House gelding has a real chance.
His odds will be a lot longer however than those of Definitly Red. Bred by James Keegan, the son of Definite Article ran in the colours of the Checkmate Syndicate. He was 7/4 favourite on his next outing in Loughanmore and moved inexorably clear before being pulled-up with an injury that kept him off the track for six months. He made amends back at the same venue in October, 20 lengths clear of the runner-up without knowing he’d ever had a race.
Phil Martin stumped up £110,000 for him at Brightwells’ Cheltenham Sale the following month and sent him to Steve Gollings. Definitly Red won a pair of bumpers before finishing a decent seventh in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, when A.P. McCoy was doing the steering.
He was a beaten odds-on favourite when making his hurdling bow over two miles, six furlongs at Newcastle in November 2014. In keeping with his tendency to keep better company than is wise in a horse’s formative years, he bumped into none other than this year’s Gold Cup third Native River.
Soon after, he moved to Spring Cottage Stables and Brian Ellison thought he might have a real contender for the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle after a couple of good victories at Catterick and Haydock. He was never a contender at Cheltenham though and Richard Johnson pulled him up.
While Hamilton always thought he was a stayer, Ellison wasn’t sure until this year. That Albert Bartlett run, along with a couple of reverses in his novice season over fences, albeit to Black Hercules and Blaklion - another who reopposes today - and the manner of his struggle before falling in the four-mile National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham suggested that he didn’t appreciate a trip.
STAYER
This year has been different though and to see him galloping all the way to the line over three miles, two furlongs in the Grimthorpe Chase, leaving The Last Samuri in his wake, left one in little doubt. He was giving 12lbs to last year’s National runner-up but you could not but be impressed as he streaked effortlessly clear, winning by 14 lengths at the finish.
To some trainers, having the favourite for the Grand National is a burden because it brings a lot of demands and expectation but Ellison possesses the ideal temperament for this job. There isn’t even the hint of tension. It helps that Martin isn’t the type to get overly animated either but truth be told, it is unlikely that Ellison would take any notice anyway.
“I’m very laidback about it all really,” says Ellison in a tone that offers confirmation of the words. “Every day you see something go wrong in the yard. You just hope nothing does go wrong but if it does, there’s nothing you can do about it really.
“I enjoy it. To have a horse like that, you’d take it. He’s probably the best horse I’ve trained, he’s rated 159 now. So it’s great to be in with a chance for races likes the Grand National.”
tyneside
It probably stems from his background and the long and winding road of half a century in racing that has taken him to this point. He is chiselled in graft as one of a brood of eight whose father worked in the Tyneside shipyards, while his mother was a cleaner at Newcastle Hospital. Paper rounds in the morning and evening paid for his first bicycle. Nothing came easy, but that was fine. It gave what he got more value.
A talented soccer player, Ellison dreamed of carving out a career with his beloved Newcastle, of the Toon Army singing his name from the terraces of St James’s Park but he was deemed too small. That diminutive stature - 4’9” - was much more conducive to being a jockey but it wasn’t what prompted him to the sport initially.
“I had nothing to do with horses until I was 15, when I left school. Me Dad used to work on the ships but I just loved animals really. I went to a livery yard when I was in school - I didn’t ride anything - but I loved being around the horses and that’s why I went into the racing. I went to Harry Blacksahw’s then and I was there six months before I ever sat on a horse.”
Ellison rode for 20 years or so without ever hitting the heights, though there were some memorable days. Tex was the best horse he ever sat on, once beating Tingle Creek in a handicap chase in 1976. Ellison resolved to learn all he could spending as much time around the yards as possible, and even taking on a role as head lad. He was planning for the next phase of his life.
He began training in 1989 at Spring Cottage Stables in Malton with five horses and over time established himself as one of the top dual-purpose trainers in Britain. Corbetts Diamond was his first winner, at Hexham, having been disqualified just days earlier at Worcester. Nothing would be straightforward in this job either.
Progress was slow for a long while and he moved back to his native north east, where he met future wife Claire, who runs the yard along with him and isn’t to be trifled with, as a Black Belt in Mixed Martial Arts.
Ellison was always ambitious and when the opportunity presented itself to purchase his former base at Spring Cottage Stables, he jumped at it and moved back from his rented accommodation in the north east in 2000.
A willingness to adopt new techniques in the search for improvement has been central to his rise through the ranks. Having returned with 25 horses, Ellison now has 140 at a completely different Spring Cottage - 80 flat horses and 60 jumpers. The facilities are state-of-the-art, the barns varying from open-air to American style, while the hot water showers are popular with the guests and the water walker was something the trainer had craved for some time having seen them in Australia.
Latalomne might have catapulted him to the big time but instead, catapulted the unfortunate Vinnie Keane to the turf at the infamous downhill second last fence at Cheltenham, when tanking along in both the 2002 and 2003 renewals of the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
In 2011, Marsh Warbler landed the Coral Future Champions Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow to provide Ellison with his first Grade 1, and later that year, Moyenne Corniche bagged Europe’s richest flat handicap, the Ebor, at York.
Two years later, Top Notch Tonto arrived at the yard. He provided his trainer with a first group win on the flat at Haydock in September, added two more listed prizes and put in a career best performance when second to Olympic Glory in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Royal Ascot. He has continued to race consistently and is a stable pet.
“He’s won around £550,000 in prizemoney - not bad for a horse that cost €3,000!” says Ellison with obvious pride.
The trainer hit the 1,000 winner mark on July 15th last year, Robero doing the honours at Newmarket but if there was any milestone that stood out, it was the first four-timer in May 2015, accumulated by winners in both codes, at four different tracks. There aren’t many across the water doing what he does.
“You need the horses. You can’t do it without the horses can you? I’ve got a good assistant, Jessica (Bell, assistant and stepdaughter), good staff, good owners and my wife Claire plays a very big role. I’ve got good people behind me but you need the horses.”
MELBOURNE CUP
His ability to look beyond the obvious meant that he was never going to be put off by having to put his horses on planes and boats. ‘Have horse, will travel’ is the motto. Dubai and Australia have proven fruitful, though his trips down under have been bittersweet to say the least.
The Melbourne Cup is the race above all that he wants to win, even more than the Grand National, or the Northumberland Plate, the Newcastle highlight that was won by Souepi on the day he was born, June 28th, 1952.
He brought Carte Diamond in 2005 and was galloping him at Caulfield, where the gelding had run a cracker when beaten just over four lengths in the Caulfield Cup, when the horse attempted to jump a rail and a metal spike penetrated his hindquarters.
Ellison nursed him back to health and returned 12 months later, only for a vet to declare the horse lame. Carte Diamond subsequently suffered a career ending injury when running through a fence when turned out in a Flemington paddock.
Undeterred, Ellison was the first international trainer to have a runner in the Perth Cup 10 years ago and Bay Story picked up A$80,000 for finishing second, beaten only a head. Unfortunately, the six-year-old broke his leg subsequently when racing at Flemington.
If anything, the previous travails have only strengthened the 64-year-old’s resolve.
Latalomne’s misfortune makes the Champion Chase a race he would dearly love to add to his CV, and the same applies to the Melbourne Cup. Moyenne Corniche and Saptapadi finally got him to the stalls in 2011 and he is adamant that he will return.
“If you’ve got the horse, I’ll go… Everybody would love to have a runner in the Melbourne Cup. I’ve had two and somebody I’ll hopefully go back and try again. It’s a brilliant occasion, well organised and you’re well looked after. It’s a great race.”
GALWAY RACING
Ireland is a particularly happy hunting ground too – the Curragh, Galway, Listowel, Punchestown. Batswing won a handicap chase at the Punchestown Festival in 2002, with Barry Geraghty in the plate. It was another 11 years before he got off the mark on the flat but it was a prestigious one, as Montefeltro claimed the Irish Cesarewitch.
Baraweez, who had recorded the first of two Galway Festival successes already by then, won a major premier handicap at Leopardstown on the opening day of the inaugural Irish Champions Weekend in 2014. Orewa bagged a valuable auction race at the Curragh last September, but it is Galway that is Ellison’s favourite.
Last year, Baraweez was bidding for a third consecutive win in the Ahonoora Handicap. A wide draw scuppered those hopes but Ellison was also represented by Stipulate and Dream Walker and it was the latter, who had finished third three days earlier, who prevailed under a peach of a ride by Chris Hayes.
“We target them kinds of races all the time. You’ve got to have the horse to do it. If you’re going to Galway, you’ve got to have a horse that’s suited by Galway. I had seven or eight runners there last year so we were there all week.
“We had a couple of winners and a couple of more placed. It’s a great week and we love the social side of it. They look after you well at the track too and it’s great.”
He expects to be back with the Galway Plate a potential target this time, while Top Notch Tonto is likely to return for the Mile, in which he was second to Creggs Pipes last year. Our Kylie will look to make it two in a row in the Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, having taken the honours in 2016 under Danny Mullins.
Before that, Grade 2 winner Forest Bihan could take in Punchestown but it will depend on how he comes out of today’s engagement in the Maghull Novices’ Chase.
“He was fifth in the Arkle but he probably would have been third if he hadn’t made a bollocks of the third last. We’ll see after Aintree. He’d be the only one that might go I would think.”
The Irish connection doesn’t end there. Megan Carberry and Garry Lavery are two of his apprentices, while former Irish champion apprentice Ben Curtis (he shared with Joseph O’Brien and Gary Carroll in 2010) is a go-to man on the flat - he rode Robero to record Ellison’s 1,000th winner - and the high-flying Brian Hughes is a popular choice for the NH horses.
You look at that journey and you understand why so little fazes Ellison. So he is enjoying having the Grand National favourite. He has only had one runner in the race before - Neptune Equester finished 13th at 100/1 six years ago.
nationAl fences
“He had a couple of days schooling over the National-style fences and he was brilliant. He worked well, he’s been scoped and is 100% clean. Everything is going well at the moment.
“He’d always been well thought of. Every year he’s got better and stronger. He wasn’t the best grubber when we got him first but he’s a good grubber now and takes his racing a lot better than he did. It used to take a lot out of him.
“Even last year, he was second to Blaklion and second to Black Hercules and won a listed handicap chase in Ayr after falling at Cheltenham. Then this year he won over hurdles. I actually he think he’s good enough to run in the Grade 1 hurdle over three miles. He wouldn’t be out of place but he’s an exceptional chaser.
“I actually doubted he got three miles last year and took him back to two and a half at Ayr. But this year he’s gotten stronger and he went to Doncaster and won over three miles, two.
“That’s something he wouldn’t have done last year.
“He’s a horse that travels, he’ll sit up around the lead and hopefully stay out of trouble. He’s as fit as a fiddle and it’s basically hoping that nothing goes wrong between now and the race and that nothing goes wrong during the race. You just want a good run around and a bit of luck.”
Allied with the Ellison touch, that might just be enough.