Elliott, 43, claimed that the photo “was taken some time ago and occurred after a horse died of an apparent heart attack on the gallops.” He said he was standing over the horse while waiting for help with its removal when his phone rang and he absent-mindedly sat down to take the call. His hand gesture, he said, was meant to let an arriving member of his team know to wait until he was finished with the call.
“I appreciate that an initial viewing of this photo suggests it is a callous and staged photo but nothing could be further from the truth,” declared Elliott, who trains horses at Cullentra House stables in Ireland’s County Meath. “… Horse welfare and the care and attention to detail involved is absolutely at the core of everything we do here and both myself and all of my team pride ourselves on those standards.”
In a Twitter post Saturday, when the photo began to go viral, Elliott said the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) had contacted him about it and that he would be “cooperating fully with their investigation.”
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) said Monday it will “use powers under its own rules to refuse to allow horses trained by Mr Elliott to race in Britain pending consideration of the outcome of the Irish investigation.” It added that horses trained by him could be transferred to other trainers and entered into British races.
The BHA said it was “appalled” by the photo and, in addition to whatever might come of the IHRB investigation, the British body was “considering its own regulatory options.”
“We expect all those in our sport to demonstrate respect for horses, on the racecourse, in the training yard, on the gallops, and wherever they have horses in their care,” the BHA said. “People who work in our industry believe their values — of caring for and respecting our horses — have been deeply undermined by this behaviour. On their behalf, and on behalf of all horse-lovers, we say unequivocally that British horseracing finds this totally unacceptable.”
Other statements of condemnation were issued by Horse Racing Ireland, Britain’s National Trainers Federation and Cheveley Park Stud. The latter is an ownership and breeding operation in England that has hired Elliott to train, among other horses, Envoi Allen, an undefeated gelding favored to win next week at the prestigious Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire, England.
On Tuesday, video surfaced of a jockey sitting atop a dead horse, prompting further outrage and questions about the sport’s respect for the animals that fuel it. Jockey Rob James, who rode an Elliott-trained horse to a win last year at the Cheltenham Festival, apologized for the video, which reportedly is from 2016.
“To try defending my stupidity at the time would add further insult and hurt to the many loyal people that have supported me during my career,” James told the Irish Field. “I have caused embarrassment to my employers, my family and most importantly the sport I love. I am heartbroken by the damage I have caused and will do my best to try and make amends to those hurt by my conduct.”
Elliott was dropped Monday by the British betting company Betfair, for which he had been an ambassador. “While we recognise that Gordon deeply regrets and apologised unreservedly for his poor judgement,” the company said (via the BBC), “his actions are completely at odds with the values of the Betfair brand and that of our employees.”
“It is indefensible,” Elliott said of the photo to the Racing Post. “Whether alive or dead, the horse was entitled to dignity. A moment of madness that I am going to have to spend the rest of my life paying for and that my staff are suffering for. I will be punished, I fully understand that. But it absolutely breaks my heart to read and hear people say that I have no respect for my horses. That couldn’t be further from the truth. My whole life has revolved around horses since I was a child. I know nothing else. Horses are all I have. I came from nothing and built a dream.
“When your world starts crumbling in front of you, it’s a scary place to be,” he continued. “I just hope people can understand how truly sorry I am and find some way to forgive me for what I have done.”
After a successful career as a rider, Elliott achieved greater prominence as a trainer, particularly of National Hunt horses, which compete in steeplechase and hurdles races. His first big win in that capacity came at the Grand National in 2007, and his next two victories in steeplechase’s foremost event were back-to-back in 2018 and 2019 with Tiger Roll, whose bid for three in a row was wiped out last year by the coronavirus pandemic.
Tiger Roll will try again at the Grand National in April, but it is unclear if Elliott will be eligible at that point to accompany the Irish-bred horse to the grounds at England’s Aintree Racecourse. Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the budget airline Ryanair who owns Tiger Roll through his Gigginstown House Stud operation, offered support Monday for the trainer while denouncing the image as “unacceptable.”
“We accept that this photograph was a grievous but momentary lapse of judgement by Gordon,” O’Leary said in a statement, “and not in keeping with our 15-year experience of his concern for and attention to the welfare of our horses. We all make mistakes, and what is important is that we learn from them and ensure we do not repeat them. We accept Gordon’s sincere, profound and unreserved apology and we will continue to support him and his team at Cullentra, as they work to recover from this deeply regrettable incident.”
Elliott told the Racing Post that the horse in the photo was a Gigginstown-owned gelding who was 7 years old when he died of a heart aneurysm in 2019.
“I just thought it has to be a fake, and then when the story was evolving … I felt so sad,” Mick Fitzgerald, a former Grand National-winning jockey and 14-time winner at Cheltenham who is now a Sky Sports analyst, said Monday on that network. “The number one thing that we have to get out to everybody is how much we care about these horses. It is so important that everybody who is watching this channel, who has any interest at all in our sport, knows that at the heart of this are people who love these animals.
“Look, it’s making me quite emotional,” continued Fitzgerald, his voice quavering. “These horses have given me a life that I’m privileged to have. It just makes me feel really sad.”
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