‘There’s a lot more to Gordon Elliott than meets the eye’ - Olly Murphy pays tribute to former boss

Olly Murphy has said he will be forever indebted to Gordon Elliott, for whom he spent four years as assistant trainer before striking out on his own in 2017 – and credited Elliott with bringing out his winning mentality.

Murphy was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper in which he reflected on the flying start to his career when it all seemed so easy, the search for a star horse to take him to the next level and the comments that came his way as a result of being set up in a yard owned by his parents.

That followed his four years working for Elliott in Ireland, a spell that gave him a taste for winning and left an impression that runs deep through Murphy’s yard in the Warwickshire village of Wilmcote, where he has aimed to replicate everything he saw at Elliott’s Cullentra House yard in Meath.

"I didn't change a lot from Gordon's, very little in fact, and it's done me proud so far," said Murphy. "I still speak to him roughly once a week and he'd always ring me after I've had a good winner. The biggest thing I learned from Gordon was a winning mentality but there's a lot more to Gordon Elliott than meets the eye. Behind being a racehorse trainer, he's a very good person and ever since I came back here he wanted to help me and still to this day wants to help. 

"I had an unbelievable four years over there. I learned how to run a business and train a racehorse and will forever be indebted for what he's done for me. He brought the winning mentality out of me."

As Elliott continues to go from strength to strength, Murphy is keen to use the success of his former boss and his great rival Willie Mullins to motivate himself even though he struggles to match them in the sales ring at the moment, just as British trainers are struggling to match them on the racetrack.

"One of the things Gordon taught me, and I've never let this go, is that if you win in the sales ring you'll win on the racetrack and it's so true," he said. "Those trainers who get to spend that budget get to spend it because they're training a lot of winners, they're successful and they get rewarded, so I'd never bemoan that. 

"Personally, that's what makes me get out of bed in the morning and makes me want to get better and better and be more competitive. You can't moan about and begrudge what Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott are doing. You've got to take them on and it's our job as British trainers to change all that."

Read more from Olly Murphy in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

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