Festival Watch: Elliott defies convention to find his winning Cheltenham formula

The penultimate race on Friday's often attritional card, it's usually when punters are seeking a bar to drown their sorrows or toast their success after the Gold Cup.

But when Gordon Elliott's Champagne Classic crossed line the last year – the last of six Festival

winners that secured him top trainer honours -­ some observers could have been forgiven for thinking he'd landed the meeting's biggest prize.

But there's history and plenty of similarities between Elliott and Pipe, the 15-time Champion Trainer with 34 Festival winners on his resume before he retired in 2006.

Pipe – the son of a West Country bookie – trained by touch and feel, with an innate understanding of what it took to make a champion, sometimes from the most unpromising stock. He was never one for stuffy conventions and neither is mechanic's son Elliott.

If his rival trainers Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson epitomise the tweed and trilby stereotype of jumps racing, Elliott is most at home in his jeans, wooly hat and tatty bomber jacket.

In an awkward nod to tradition he wears a tie at the Festival – but it's always swinging half way down his chest by race three.

Pipe briefly employed Elliott, who showed fleeting promise as a jockey, with nearly 50 winners and plenty more success at point to points.

Elliott watched, learned and was inspired. He begun training with a handful of rented boxes and some big ambitions – his first race win, the 2007 Grand National with outsider Silver Birch, a horse castaside as a no-hoper by British trainer Paul Nicholls.

In the decade since, he has trained over 1000 winners, claimed the Gold Cup two years ago with Don Cossack, become the master of a state-of-the-art 170-strong stable in County Meath and – 12 months ago – finished the Festival as top trainer and dethroned Mullins as the best handler in Ireland.

Not bad considering he's only just turned 40 – and could have another 30 years at the top of his sport.

"This is the Olympics of our sport and everything we think is capable of running a race will go," insists Elliott, who estimates the size of his raiding party to be between 30 and 40.

"You win at Cheltenham and people remember it, you just need one winner to get the pressure off but I'm realistic.

"Last year will be very hard to beat . Give me two winners and I'll be delighted, it's just the best feeling you can have.

"There is pressure after last year but I'm always putting myself under pressure to drive myself on. I like the pressure.

"People expect me to have winners but you can't look at Cheltenham and say I have a bad week if we only get over the line in a couple of races.

"I've got a lot of good horses, great owners and a fantastic staff. We just try to improve year on year but last year set a high bar for us."

Mullins, backed by the money of Michael O'Leary's Gigginstown Stud which should account for approximately half his Cheltenham runners, is sure to add to his tally of 14 Festival winners next week.

Apple's Jade and the eagerly-anticipated Samcro are leading his charge in the Mares' Hurdle and Ballymore Novice Hurdle respectively.

"Everyone is talking about Samcro and he has done everything right but it's a big step up again at Cheltenham and he has to keep improving," Elliott adds.

"It's the first time he's travelled from Ireland to England to race and we maybe learned how tough that is with Death Duty last year.

"It's an unknown for him, we won't know until he runs but Apple's Jade has been there and done it. She's like a bull at the moment and hopefully she can do it again."

Elliott still speaks with deference about Mullins and insists winning the leading trainer award at Cheltenham didn't change his life.

He also claims his first Champion Trainer title in Ireland was not the ‘be-all and end-all'.

However, as he talks, it's hard to believe him, given that his competitive instincts are as strong as his accent.

"I feel very fortunate to be training in the same era as Willie Mullins, sometimes he sets an impossible standard," he adds.

He's more passionate when it comes to Irish racing. Last year , trainers from across the Irish Sea won an unprecedented 19 of the 28 Festival races.

Indeed , you have to go back to 2012 for the last time an English handler finished the meeting with the most winners.

"We just keep doing it but Nicky Henderson might have something to say about it this year," he said.

"Irish racing is in a great position but I'm just about winners . It's not about individual horses or nationalities, I just want to win."

Sportsbeat 2018