General Chat

[Craigy14]

Statement is complete bull!

But as Q said with the Palace keeper example, he may get away with any lengthy punishment because of it.

Not that it will help him as he’ll likely be down the drain, which he deserves.

Someone is clearly out to get him and the timing is no coincidence with Cheltenham 2 weeks away.

Edit - depending what the HRI decided or the Irish racing panel, the BHA could also say they don’t want his horses running at Cheltenham, regardless of punishment that’s been handed out. I don’t think we’ll see Gordon at Cheltenham imo. Imagine him walking in with a winner after what’s just happened. Almost be as bad as the offence itself.

[MTR]

Reputation of racing in the gutter once again. Genuinely don’t know if the jumps game will be around in 10 years time.

Sad time for racing once again.

[Eggs]

.....dreadful state of affairs. Elliott has rightfully received plaudits for his achievements in this great sport, he’s high profile and as such he should lead by example. We hear how stable staff on minimum wage love the horses they care for and even us as punters feel an affinity to these wonderful beasts.

We all understandably don’t want this to influence who turns up at the Festival in a fortnights time, owners and punters shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of Elliott.

I wonder what the name of that horse was and how it’s owners will feel. I fear this story will gain momentum and do the Sport a lot of harm, Elliott will have to suffer the consequence.

[OverTheAnvil]

Away from photo gate for a second, Lambert has finally been given his marching orders from my team Ipswich tonight (officially mutual consent FC).

Paul Cook on his way in but, far more importantly, a consortium of Americans are buying the club from long term owner (and the reason we’ve had 13 years slowly deteriorating) Marcus Evans.

A new era may just be beginning and I feel inclined to tell FJ I’ve (nearly) got my club back




Edit - Typed this before the statement from Elliott. Back to photogate... what an arse he is. Ffs.

I share your pain for the the 13 years. Hopefully it will spark Some life back in to the club, as the recent history has been a shit show.

[Magpie]

I was thinking the same thing Eggs, that is someone’s horse he is sitting on. Can you imagine him doing that on one of the current high profile horses. The story would be ten times worse, though that’s not the point, every horse’s life should be respected.

I suppose like farmers, people in the racing industry accept that there is going to be an element of death with sick animals, injuries etc. It’s part of the job.

But the lack of any compassion in the immediate time that a horse has had a heart attack is startling.

His statement is just woeful.

[Liammet]

Absolutely rocked by this

I have spent the last week defending him regarding various accusations

I am totally despondent now,nearly posting this on the “I’m Struggling “ thread

will take a few days to get my head together but I am seriously thinking of bowing out of this game

[Eggs]

....news that Brazilian variant of Covid has been found in Gloucestershire is more bad news.

[Anay Turge]

I don’t want to seem insensitive here, and I really do appreciate the bad image it casts on the sport (to those who need little excuse) but what really offends people here? Genuine question. It’s insensitive to the owners, but why are we so effected by it? He hasn’t hurt or injured the horse personally, just made a bad call by sitting on the horse. People have done a lot worse and received smaller punishments compared to what people are calling for on here/Twitter.

[Rhinestone_Cowboy]

Liammet settle down mate,
“take a few days to get my head together” and “Almost posting in im struggling thread”

Drama queen, its not a competition to see who can be most impacted by the image.

This is a really inappropriate response and not in keeping with the spirit of this forum

[Stormez]

Edit: just read through & seen statement already posted last night

[Birds Nest]

This sort of thing does knock the sport quite a bit but we must not let it derail it. Horse racing has come a long way in the 40yrs iv been attending, it was much more of a bent sport in the past, racing has and will continue to better itself. We mustn't let all the hard work done by the owners, trainers, governing bodies, media and the stable folk in making things a lot less corrupt go to waste. One step back shouldn't stop you going 2 forward.

[ToniC]

I don’t want to seem insensitive here, and I really do appreciate the bad image it casts on the sport (to those who need little excuse) but what really offends people here? Genuine question. It’s insensitive to the owners, but why are we so effected by it? He hasn’t hurt or injured the horse personally, just made a bad call by sitting on the horse. People have done a lot worse and received smaller punishments compared to what people are calling for on here/Twitter.

This would be my take on it, which I think will go down like a cup of cold sick with some. But objectively, can people really say this is worse than what Charles byrnes was recently accused of? Important to stress this isn’t a welfare issue, either.

I’m not defending him, it’s in very bad taste, obviously, and owners will make their own minds up if they want to continue the relationship. Think chevely park will have to seriously consider theirs. But these calls that he should be out of the sport for good etc, are way off the mark for me.

[Jrow]

This is a really inappropriate response and not in keeping with the spirit of this forum

Whats inappropriate is people making the situation about them, which is what liams attempting to do. One upmanship at its finest are we supposed to just turn a blind eye to someone acting the goat

The image is bad, but your a hypocrite if you dont share the same heartache when a horse falls and dies and tell a forum your struggling and ready to quit the game.

with more group thinking like that, national hunt racing is over

[Exar Essay]

I don’t want to seem insensitive here, and I really do appreciate the bad image it casts on the sport (to those who need little excuse) but what really offends people here? Genuine question. It’s insensitive to the owners, but why are we so effected by it? He hasn’t hurt or injured the horse personally, just made a bad call by sitting on the horse. People have done a lot worse and received smaller punishments compared to what people are calling for on here/Twitter.

What offends me the most is, rightly or wrongly, I just can’t believe now that the welfare of his horses are paramount now. If he truly cared for his animals, he wouldn’t be doing that. There’s also the grotesque nature of the joke, someone gurning astride a dead horse just isn’t for me, but it’s mainly what it tells me the man is probably like as a trainer.

[Faugheen_Machine]

I don’t want to seem insensitive here, and I really do appreciate the bad image it casts on the sport (to those who need little excuse) but what really offends people here? Genuine question. It’s insensitive to the owners, but why are we so effected by it? He hasn’t hurt or injured the horse personally, just made a bad call by sitting on the horse. People have done a lot worse and received smaller punishments compared to what people are calling for on here/Twitter.

Someone connected to the Charles Byrnes stable doped a horse to levels that could have killed him and put the jockey at serious risk, yet I don't think this got a mention on the forum.

That was several orders of magnitude worse than what Gordon has done. Charles is free to continue training in 6 months but Gordon is being hung out to dry.

We've probably all made serious errors of judgement in our lives, some of the things I've done would have made national headlines if I was in public view, but I think this has to be seen for what it is - a massive error of judgement.

He's knocking on the door of being champion trainer in Ireland and that doesn't happen if there's a animal welfare issue in his stable. He's just been an idiot, a complete idiot.

I'd like to see him fined and put on Luck on Sunday to apologise.

He will probably lose horses and powerful owners over this and that'll be punishment enough in my view.