Vast experience behind the scenes in leading Irish yard

As in any top-class training establishment everyone involved in Gordon Elliott's yard is a cog in a well-oiled machine, a creature of routine, a member of a team in which everyone knows their individual role and responsibilities.

It has to be this way. You can not run a racing yard, which has sent out 223 individual horses to contest an aggregate 729 races in the domestic jumping category alone since the start of the current season, without a phenomenal effort of logistics and coordination. Throw into the equation the Flat runners, and the jumpers sent to England and Scotland, and the challenge is more awesome still.

Most yards of this size operate a rigid hierarchy in keeping with the traditions and history of the sport, a pyramid with the trainer at the top, all the way down to the youngest work-riders, and the most junior members of staff. Elliott has all the usual operatives in place. What makes his Cullentra yard different is that notions of hierarchy are scarcely perceptible. The staff, from the long-servers to the latest recruits, make up something more akin to a large and happy family.