Richard Dunwoody hails retiring David Elsworth as ‘huge loss to the training ranks’

Dunwoody rode plenty of big-race winners for Elsworth, 82, before his retirement through injury in 2000, but is best remembered for partnering Desert Orchid, owned by North Yorkshire’s Richard Burridge, to victory in two of his four King George VI Chase victories, an Irish Grand National, and an incredible weight-carrying performance in the Racing Post Chase.

“This will be a huge loss to the training ranks. Elsie was always very, very astute,” said Dunwoody. “It was great riding for him. I really enjoyed riding for him and we had some good winners together.

“Luckily for me, owner Richard Burridge was the main driving force to get me the ride on Desert Orchid.

“Riding for Elsie was always very straightforward. He used to say, ‘You know him now, get on with it’. Astute is the word.

“He was a perfectionist, but he had a gift of knowing a horse inside out.”

While Desert Orchid landed a Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989 under Simon Sherwood, Dunwoody has long felt that the grey’s best effort came on February 24, 1990, at Kempton when an 11-year-old.

He said: “I still think that the top performance Desert Orchid put in was the then-Listed Racing Post Chase, with all that weight. Almost as soon as I got off, Elsie said, ‘I wish today would have been Gold Cup day’.

“Elsie was always to the point. There were a couple of times I had to get off Desert Orchid because the Duke (David Nicholson) was going to run something else or go somewhere else, and Elsie was very good about it. He said, ‘Don’t worry, he is only going there for a run. You’re fine’.

“He knew his horses so well. He is a proper, proper horseman and I had nothing but respect for the way he handled his horses.”

Elsworth also saddled 1988 Grand National hero Rhyme ‘N’ Reason and scaled the heights under both codes, with the likes of Classic winner In The Groove and dual Goodwood Cup champion Persian Punch.

Veteran trainer Sir Mark Prescott, in paying personal tribute, said: “It is absolutely no coincidence that the two most charismatic horses under both rules over the last 30 years, were trained by the same man – Desert Orchid and Persian Punch. That is all you need to know.

“I’ve known ‘Elsie’ since he was working in Devizes in the early 1970s. He is a remarkably good horseman, rider and jockey, and always was – he could do it all.

“Like all complete naturals, he could not begin to tell you why. When they read out the winners he had trained in one year, of every description, it was jaw-dropping. Elsworth is the top of the list at getting the best out of a horse. What made him so good was that burning ambition for perfection and in his case, possibly, it was much more freehand.

“He didn’t spend hours and hours in formbooks or studying pedigrees, he had that great God-given gift that he could simply do it. The rest of us had to learn. I truly believe that.

“You become good because you have brilliance, or because you apply yourself, or have determination to succeed. There are a lot of reasons why people get right to the top level. Some have that real flair – and Elsworth had that. If you had a poll for the best trainer in recent years and it was conducted by the professionals, on an anonymous basis, Elsworth would probably top it, wouldn’t he?”