The going is good for Gordon Elliott

He says he’s an outsider to take the Irish National Hunt trainers’ table, but the Meath racing supremo is in flying form

Gordon Elliott pictured with Noble Endeavor at Cullentra House in Longwood, Co Meath Picture: Barry Cronin

Gordon Elliott peers at a high-definition screen relaying dramatic footage from the skies above. It is Christmas week, but there is no sign yet of the bleak midwinter as unseasonably mild weather facilitates filming.

Overhead, a drone hovers and then whizzes off into the distance, a pair of red lights marking its trajectory as the early morning gloom lifts. On the ground, it is almost as if you can detect a whirring from ...