WHEN Gordon Elliott says that he would not take out a trainer’s licence in the current climate, you have to take note. The Meath handler is fully aware of the struggles being experienced by so many of his colleagues and of his good fortune to have so many backers with financial clout.

Elliott spoke this week in the wake of the release of the Horse Racing Ireland statistics for 2015, which confirmed that the decline in the number of trainers, owners and horses-in-training was ongoing.