'He was bloody good - people underestimate him but you should talk about him in the same breath as Desert Orchid'
David Elsworth talks Lewis Porteous through the horses who made him the greatest dual-purpose trainer of his generation
This interview with David Elsworth was first published in October as part of our popular The Horses Who Made Me series.
Originally exclusive for Racing Post Members' Club subscribers, we have made this piece free to read to mark the legendary trainer's 85th birthday.
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Sir Mark Prescott might hold the accolade of racing's greatest raconteur but he is not the only person in Newmarket who can captivate an audience.
David Elsworth, the greatest dual-purpose trainer of his generation, has plainly lost none of his wit or wisdom since retiring almost three years ago.
At 84, his short-term memory may be a little hazy at times, but when it comes to the horses who made him a household name microscopic details stick in his mind; and, boy, can he tell a story.
Elsworth's life has been spent surrounded by horses ever since he set off on his push bike in 1955 to become a groom at Alec Kilpatrick's yard. The Herridge-based trainer continued as his boss when the young man became a jump jockey but it wasn't until training himself that Elsworth discovered his forte.
The success he enjoyed was all the more meritorious because he was a self-made man. Raised in a Salisbury council house, Elsie relied on ambition, determination and, above all, talent. He scaled remarkable heights with some of Flat and jump racing's greatest equine celebrities and life was never dull.
"We're very lucky," says Elsworth, getting comfy on his leather sofa as we settle in for a three-hour meander down memory lane. "There's too much vanity in racing. People seem to think it's them that do it. Horses win bloody races and we're very privileged to ride off the backs of them."
Leading up Grand National favourite Must at Aintree in 1956 set the tone for his career in racing. It was the year the Queen Mother's Devon Loch jumped a shadow on the run-in with the race at his mercy and he remembers the drama as if it were yesterday.
"I was 16," he says, calculating that it was 68 years ago. "I looked after Must and he was my pride and joy. I was standing 150 yards in front of where Devon Loch sprawled. My horse fell at the first and I was out on the course waiting for him to come around for the second time.
"The Queen Mother's horse was going to win the Grand National and the collective gasp from the huge crowd when he sprawled was unforgettable."
Twelve years later Elsworth rode in the National and was creeping into the race when his mount Chamoretta was left with nowhere to go.
"We got to the last ditch but we got baulked from either side and ended up in the ditch. We were behind but I was staying on. She wouldn't have won but I was nursing her round.
"I think the most winners I rode in a year was six but I rode for quite a few years. I rode a few winners for Toby Balding. He was a good man and looked after all the lame ducks, of which I'd have to say I was one as a jockey."
After a spell as a hands-on assistant to lieutenant-colonel Ricky Vallance, Elsworth started training in his own right at Figheldean near Stonehenge in 1978, but he had moved to Lucknam Park near Bath by the time of Heighlin, a horse who exemplified the dual-purpose nature of his operation in the early years. In 1980, he became one of only three horses to win at both the Cheltenham Festival (Triumph Hurdle) and Royal Ascot (Ascot Stakes) in the same year.
"I had a hell of a run when I started and had something like eight winners from my first dozen runners," says Elsie. "I hit the ground running but it was Heighlin who launched me.
"He was 40-1 for the Triumph but we fancied him and we backed him because that's what we bought him for. We paid £14,000 for him and I got Steve Jobar, who was a mate of mine, to ride the horse. To begin with, if he saw a hurdle he'd run the other way, but Steve got him jumping.
"The same season he won the Triumph he went on and won eight handicaps on the Flat, including the Great Metropolitan, the Ascot Stakes and Goodwood Stakes. Then as a five-year-old he won the Goodwood Cup, so he progressed from winning a Triumph Hurdle to winning a Goodwood Cup. He was significant."
Elsworth's early success did not go unnoticed and he was soon invited to take up residency at the fabled Whitsbury Manor Stables, where he trained with unparallelled success on the Flat and over jumps for 25 years.
Floyd may have had his ailments but Elsworth coaxed a host of big-race wins out of him over his long career during the trainer's formative years at Whitsbury.
"He was a hell of a horse, by Relko out of a Honeyway mare – his parentage was older than my grandparents! He came to me with two bowed tendons and I thought, 'This is a f***ing joke', but I trained him. Every time his leg reared its head I gave him time off but he always came back and won his races every season."
Between 1985 and 1989, Floyd won two Fighting Fifth and Kingwell Hurdles, and one Imperial Cup, County Hurdle and Bula Hurdle. He then came fourth in Beech Road's Champion Hurdle before stepping up in trip to win the Long Walk and Rendlesham Hurdles.
With his game front-running style and his unlikely durability, Floyd was the hurdling equivalent of Desert Orchid, the flamboyant chaser who was undoubtedly his trainer's masterpiece and the horse who instantly comes to mind when Elsworth is mentioned.
Desert Orchid was the highest-rated chaser for five consecutive seasons from 1986-87. His class, versatility, toughness and robustness were so exceptional that, if the best performances by all Elsworth's horses were listed in order of merit, the top dozen would all be by the sensational grey, headed by his tour de force in the Racing Post Chase at Kempton in 1990 that earned a Racing Post Rating of 189.
"The day he won the Racing Post Chase, I don't think he had ever been better," says Elsie of the day Dessie gave two stone and an eight-length beating to runner-up Delius. Even with 12st 3lb he wasn't going to get beat.
"It was difficult for me to interpret what was going on among the public with Dessie. When you're on the inside looking out, it's different to what the perception is from the outside looking in. He started winning, and he was grey and flamboyant and he used to go off in front. Then it became 'Dessie' from 'Desert Orchid' and they never stopped talking about him. People turned up to see him and it was great fun."
In the 100 Favourite Racehorses poll of Racing Post readers in 2004, Desert Orchid was second only to Arkle. Such was his following, he became the nation's equine pet and part of Christmas tradition was watching him win the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
If he had an Achilles heel it was going left-handed, yet he still managed to win the greatest prize in jump racing when triumphing in bottomless ground in the 1989 Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
"It was in atrocious conditions on a track he didn't act on," says Elsworth. "For whatever reason he just never seemed to perform going left-handed but he went around there and tried his heart out. If ever a horse deserved to win a Gold Cup it was him. I was a bit of a romantic, so to win the Gold Cup was a big deal."
During the Desert Orchid era, Rhyme 'N' Reason put Elsworth's name on the sport's most celebrated honour roll when landing the Grand National in 1988, the year his trainer was crowned champion over jumps with a squad further graced by dual Champion Chase winner Barnbrook Again.
"The National was a big deal too," he says, not least because Rhyme 'N' Reason made the most astonishing Grand National recovery by any winner of the race. He blundered so badly at Becher's first time he was knocked back to last place, yet he managed to pick his way back to the front under Brendan Powell to beat Durham Edition by four lengths.
"He sat down on his hind legs but he kept straight and Brendan deserves a lot of credit. When he slithered I put my glasses down and said to his owner John Moreton, 'He's f***ing fallen'. We were cursing but then I heard him being mentioned again. I thought, 'Don't be f***ing stupid', but I looked up and thought, 'Oh, we're still going'.
"By the time he got to jump Becher's second time he was going again and for the last mile we were always going to win. His saddle slipped back as well, so we were lucky that day because in another furlong the saddle would have been off.
"He wasn't a great jumper and would fiddle a lot. He was clever and a bit like a cat. Brendan was very good and took him right down the outside but there was an awful lot of luck attached to it."
While Rhyme 'N' Reason joined Elsworth from trainer David Murray Smith, Barnbrook Again had been in the care of Derek Haydn-Jones and Stan Mellor before joining the Whitsbury roster.
"I might just have got him at the right time," says Elsworth rather modestly. "He won what was the Ladbroke Hurdle in Ireland in January, was third in the Champion Hurdle and won plenty of nice races over hurdles.
"Then he went chasing and he was bloody good. He won the Champion Chase twice and was second in the King George to Dessie. People underrate him but you [should] talk about him in the same breath as Desert Orchid.
"I'm not banging my own drum but some people pigeonhole them and say this is his distance or that is his distance, but what makes a good horse is when they come under pressure and have got to do it. It's not so much the distance but the courage to do it that counts. There's too much of a hang-up about trips."
In the same year as Barnbrook Again won his second Champion Chase, Elsworth showed his remarkable versatility when he campaigned In The Groove to become champion three-year-old filly by winning the Irish 1,000 Guineas, the Juddmonte International and the Champion Stakes.
"She had a head like a JCB and a big Roman nose," he says of the first time he saw In The Groove as a yearling at Lavington Stud. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I thought she was all right, but she wasn't a pretty thing.
"I thought nothing more of it but when she went to the sales and I saw her in the ring, that's when I fell in love with her. What a bloody specimen and I had dual-purpose in mind when I bought her for 21,000gns. The rest is history."
As well as her three Group 1s at three, In The Groove won the Coronation Cup at four. In beating top-class older males, she eclipsed her contemporary Salsabil, who may have received more publicity for beating colts in the Irish Derby but was officially rated In The Groove's inferior.
"She won Group 1s from a mile to a mile and a half," says Elsworth, highlighting the same approach that worked so well with his jumpers. "A lot of purists would have said when she won the Irish Guineas that you're not going to run her in the Coronation Cup as a four-year-old but 'Prat' did and she won it. People are too quick to put labels around their necks."
Either side of In The Groove's Classic-winning year, Elsworth saddled two-year-old filly Dead Certain to win the Queen Mary, Lowther and Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes, and Seattle Rhyme to win the Racing Post Trophy. He was truly a trainer of all seasons.
Elsworth moved to Whitcombe in Dorset in 1992 and then back to Whitsbury at the end of the decade, which coincided with Persian Punch becoming a household name.
The stalwart stayer's 13 Group wins between 1997 and 2003 equalled the record at the time for the most European Flat Pattern victories and, although he never triumphed at Group 1 level, his three Jockey Club Cups, two Goodwood Cups and a Doncaster Cup guaranteed him a place in the public's affection.
"Talk about a star. I bought him for 14,000gns at Book 17 or something and he was a great stayer. I didn't run him as a two-year-old because he was so big – he was 17 hands and a horse who took time.
"He was third in a Goodwood Cup as a three-year-old and it went from there. He won a stack of races but was also runner-up in two Gold Cups and third in two Melbourne Cups. It pissed me off that he never won the Gold Cup and, of the races I didn't win, that's the one on my wishlist because I love stayers.
"He was a great horse and I actually schooled him over jumps one day. He'd grunt when he jumped and, when they're grunting, they're not concentrating. It's like you or I grunting, he was telling us something. He didn't jump well enough to run over hurdles."
In 2006, and to the surprise of many, Elsworth spread his wings and headed to Egerton House Stables in Newmarket. Persian Punch's owner Jeff Smith was one of a number of loyal supporters who followed and in 2015 he provided Elsie with his final Group 1 winner.
By Dubawi out of Barshiba and trained by Elsworth to win the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks in Smith's purple livery, Arabian Queen was also a Group 2 winner at two but is best remembered as the first horse to defeat Derby hero Golden Horn when landing the Juddmonte International.
"There was a race in Deauville [the Group 2 Prix de la Nonette] the same week as the Juddmonte. Logically thinking, that was the race we should have run in, but me and Jeff both wanted to go to York and that was it."
Golden Horn was odds-on at York while Arabian Queen was a big outsider and Elsworth got the impression he and his filly weren't exactly being taken seriously.
"Everyone was running around sticking microphones in the faces of Aidan O'Brien and John Gosden, and here I am with my pride and joy but no-one wanted to talk to me. She was 100-1 and no-one wanted to know.
"They took out Gleneagles, who was second favourite, and suddenly we're 50-1. The pacemaker fluffed the start so we popped out in front. Golden Horn was always sitting up our arse and in the home straight the two of them started to race. She stuck in there and was so tough and in the end she ran him out of it. A professional trainer would have gone to France with her but the optimist went and got lucky."
In light of what had happened in the build-up, Elsworth decided he'd rather go and saddle his runner for the next at York than join the post-race celebrations and trophy presentation. He was nowhere to be seen in the winner's enclosure.
"It's a thing I regret because I should have had the good grace to go and receive the prize. It was the richest race in Europe and it would have been only good manners to go and receive it. I wasn't thinking straight and I do regret it now."
It might have been an unorthodox reaction but that is why no-one could ever call Elsworth boring. He did things his way from start to finish and ended his training career with 1,146 wins on the Flat and 487 over jumps, including 16 successes at Royal Ascot and nine at the Cheltenham Festival. They don't make them like Elsie anymore.
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Published on inThe Horses Who Made Me
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Copy- 'He was bloody good - people underestimate him but you should talk about him in the same breath as Desert Orchid'
- 'There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!'
- John Gosden: 'We were young and if you couldn't have fun in LA in the 1980s you couldn't have fun anywhere - it was a wild town'
- 'If I ever had a stroke of genius it was bringing him back to a mile for the QEII - that day he was majestic'
- 'I just wish he had been at his best that day because I would have given Frankel a big run for it'
- 'He was bloody good - people underestimate him but you should talk about him in the same breath as Desert Orchid'
- 'There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!'
- John Gosden: 'We were young and if you couldn't have fun in LA in the 1980s you couldn't have fun anywhere - it was a wild town'
- 'If I ever had a stroke of genius it was bringing him back to a mile for the QEII - that day he was majestic'
- 'I just wish he had been at his best that day because I would have given Frankel a big run for it'