Gordon Elliott | Horse Racing Free Tips

Returning Gordon Elliott Reflects On His Suspension, Regrets After Controversial Photo

Gordon Elliott returns to training Thursday, six months after he was suspended for conduct unbecoming to the sport after a photo of Elliott astride a dead horse surfaced earlier this year.

The trainer spoke to the Racing Post about what he thought was the lowest point throughout this controversy: the loss of stars like Sir Gerhard and Quilixios from his barn.

As he watched those horses move on to other barns and then win at the Cheltenham Festival, Elliott reflected on his regrets about losing those horses.

“I had worked very hard to source those horses, and then they were gone,” he told Racing Post. “Just like that. When Envoi Allen was here, there wasn't a night I didn't lie in bed thinking about him. And now that he is gone, there still isn't a night I don't lie in bed thinking about him.”

In all, the trainer lost about a dozen horses from his yard in the course of his suspension, but the relationships with those owners remain cordial despite the controversy.

“I have never had a cross word with any of the owners who left,” he said. “I still speak to them all and the gate is always open. I understand completely why they had to go.”

Commentary: How Will Evolving Public Morality Affect Horse Racing’s Future?

Thoroughbred Racing Commentary contributor Daniel Ross wrote this week of the evolution of public attitudes and how they can and will affect the future of the sport of horse racing. He considers the public embarrassments racing has endured in just the past few years, from the spate of deaths at Santa Anita to the photograph of trainer Gordon Elliott astride a dead horse, and asks why those instances have garnered such intense media attention, while others, perhaps equally as egregious, have fallen by the wayside.

Ross writes: “Why, for example, has disciplinary action been metered out by the sport's regulators to Elliott but not to Sheikh Mohammed, whose wife fled to London allegedly fearing for her life, and who has been accused of kidnapping and imprisoning his daughter? Is one action more morally repugnant than the other?”

And: “If, for example, the broader media is genuinely incensed by mistreatment of horses for sport, where are all the column inches devoted to the ongoing problem of match racing in the U.S., an unregulated and illegal activity notorious for prodigious drug use?”

He posits that both the prevalence of social media and the presence of well-funded animal rights campaigns may be behind the impetus for horse racing to change how it views the importance of public perspective.

Ross concludes: the sport of horse racing “still gets to write its own story. Which one, however, will it choose?”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Racing Commentary.

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American Mike Tops Cheltenham Sale

American Mike (Ire) (Mahler {GB}) (lot 8), the 20-length winner of a maiden point-to-point at Cork on Apr. 10, topped the Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale relocated to Newmarket on Friday when selling to Bective Stud and Gordon Elliott for £195,000. Elliott, who is currently serving a six-month ban from training after a photo of him sitting astride a dead horse surfaced on social media in March, signed alone or in partnership for three of the top four lots at the sale.

American Mike was sold by Monbeg Stables, and Elliott also signed for the sale's second-top lot, Cool Survivor (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) (lot 29) (£175,000), who won the second division of American Mike's maiden race, and fourth-top lot Ash Tree Meadow (Fr) (Bonbon Rose {Fr}) (lot 21) (£135,000) from that draft, the latter in conjunction with Aidan O'Ryan. Splitting those was Coachman (Fr) (Maresca Sorrento {Fr}) (lot 25), who was scooped up by Marcus Collie and Oliver Signy Racing for £140,000.

The final horse to reach six figures was Milestone Stables's Chianti Classico (Ire) (Shantou) (lot 17), an Apr. 11 maiden point-to-point winner at Tipperary who cost Aiden Murphy and Kim Bailey £105,000.

Upon conclusion of trade, 32 horses were sold on Friday from 35 offered for £2,148,000, at an average of £67,125 and a median of £52,500.

The post American Mike Tops Cheltenham Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Clancy: Will Racing’s Public Trust Survive The Actions Of Bad Actors?

The start of 2021 hasn't been particularly positive for the sport of horse racing, acknowledges Joe Clancy, editor of the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred. A quartet of incidents stand out: the Gordon Elliott photo, the suspension of jockey Alexander Crispin over weight disparities, a trainer with 45 listed medication violations on the ballot for the Hall of Fame, and a horse with two failed drug tests earning an Eclipse Award.

Racing is “at some kind of crossroads, again or still depending on how you look at it,” Clancy wrote in a recent editorial.

“At its core, racing exists because of a public trust,” he continued. “Those outside the industry need to trust that the people inside the industry are doing the right things. The questions are pretty simple.”

Those questions the public should be able to ask of racing include: Are the horses well cared for? Is the wagering above board? Are rule-breakers penalized?

Looking at the 2021 actions of just the above four members of the racing industry, those questions become harder to answer. At the end of the day, Clancy wrote, the most important question is whether racing's public trust will survive the actions of the rule-breakers and bad actors.

“That's the most important question, and I can't answer it,” he concluded.

Read more at the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred.

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