Jumps Stable Tours: Warren Greatrex | Matt Brocklebank visits Uplands
Our new National Hunt columnist Warren Greatrex kicks off with a guide through his exciting team of horses in Upper Lambourn.
Warren Greatrex has joined the Sporting Life stable and will be starting a midweek column this week... In the meantime, here's an introduction to the two-time Cheltenham Festival winner and a guide to some of his 80-strong team in Upper Lambourn.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your training methods...
I started out with The Duke (David Nicholson) and had a brief career in the saddle before becoming head lad for Bryan Smart. I then joined Oliver Sherwood for nine years and picked up some experience during a spell with Guillaume Macaire in France.
I was private trainer to Malcolm Denmark for three seasons just over at Weathercock House – where Richard Hughes is now - before starting out here at Uplands with around a dozen horses in 2012. It’s a brilliant yard and steeped in history, made famous by Fred Winter. We’ve added all the names of his big-race winners to the boxes, as well as our own, but I’ve got some catching up to do!
We're lucky here in Lambourn as we have the most amazing facilities on the Jockey Club Estate Training Grounds, it's a shared gallop setup but it’s now predominantly Flat horses being trained here which means through the winter we have all this acreage and all the facilities with relatively few horses around. There’s around six miles of all-weather gallop and about 15 turf gallops so there are plenty of options.
I like to training horses to their individual needs and to treat them on a day-to-day basis. You just want to build up a profile of every horse.
We all know that sometimes we don’t want to get out of bed on the odd occasion and it’s the same with racehorses, so I don’t stick to a strict regime.
Some don’t like being trained on the hill, some don’t like being worked in a string, and others do. You’ve got to factor in these small things too. We try and mix it up and we’re lucky we have the staff.
How many have you got in at Uplands currently and what are your hopes and ambitions for the season?
We’ve 80 horses in at the moment and I’d be delighted to have another 50 winners this season. It’s a number we’ve become used to hitting but I don’t really set targets based on numbers as what we’re trying to achieve is to have more runners in the biggest races and to compete in the best races.
I don’t think I’ll ever be one who wants 150 horses as it becomes a bit of a numbers game. But I think we’ve proved in the last four or five years, with a Cheltenham and Aintree winner last year, a Punchestown winner, plenty of other Graded winner, that we’re aspiring to compete with the best.
Every year we’ve been getting stronger and stronger as we’ve gone through buying youngsters and they’ve come forward and this year the novice chase division will be as strong as I’ve had.
I would still have the bumper and the novice hurdle horses coming through but this is the first year that I’d have a fair amount of novice chasers which is what they were bought for after all.
Where do you stand on the Cheltenham Festival domination in the National Hunt season?
Well I don’t think it’s right really but it just seems to be getting bigger and bigger by the year. We try to play it down a bit but it keeps growing. And with the super-powers of Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott targeting it they’ve got so many options for each race.
Here you’ve got Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls so it’s hard for everybody and when you’ve got an 80-horse string and able to compete I think everyone deserves a pat on the back.
Out of all the major Festivals, Cheltenham and the pressure that comes with it is huge. So when you have one (winner), you know you’re doing something right and it’s like a drug, you want more and more.
Which courses suit your horses best?
I maintain that in terms of configuration there isn’t a better track than Newbury. The probably is you take a promising young horse to Newbury and some old fella from over the hill goes there with a world-beater and you end up fifth after running really well!
I like Wetherby a lot, there are no excuses and it’s a great, galloping track. Doncaster is similar but I do find they get racing really early on for some reason at Doncaster and that can rip the guts out of a young horse. They’re also really competitive novice hurdles there too.
Stable Tour – Horse-by-horse guide
MISSED APPROACH
His season will be geared around the Grand National. It was the plan to go there last year but he didn’t get into the race and he’d probably had enough by the time Sandown came around.
We could start him off at Aintree in the Becher Chase and he’ll probably only have two or three runs before the National weights are published in February. He’ll then have a prep run before Aintree and hopefully he’ll give us all a fantastic day out. He’s all about stamina and he likes to get a good sight of his fences so he looks the ideal type for the National.
I’ve had two runners in the race in the past – Tranquil Sea (2015) and Dolatulo – and they finished seventh and 19th so I’ve a 100 per cent completion rate to maintain!
He won the four-miler at Cheltenham in March and it was a proud day. Ireland had won every race that day and it was the last race of the day with Patrick Mullins and Jamie Codd looming up alongside you - you think here we go. But to be honest from three out I felt he’d win. I think if Mall Dini has headed us we would have weakened but the mistake they made was holding onto him and that just spurred Missed Approach on. I’m thankful they didn’t go past.
Click on the image below for Sky Bet's Grand National odds...
LA BAGUE AU ROI
She’ll go chasing this season and with a mark of 152 over hurdles I’d like to think she can go a long way. She’s grown again and has always looked a chaser in the making so she’s pretty exciting.
She’s tended to lose her way after Christmas, which might just be her, but we’ll start off in a novice chase and hopefully get a couple of wins on the board before raising her sights.
She loves deep ground but I wouldn’t say it was a necessity. She’ll mix between two and a half and three miles with a pretty nice programme for mares these days.
When she ran in Ireland in April she was the only one that could live with Faugheen early and I think if she’d been ridden for a place should would have been. She still ran well and if she takes to fences then she could be better than she was over hurdles. I trained her half-brother Kayserberg and he jumped well so I see no reason why not.
WESTERN RYDER
I think his bumper season let a little bit of a mark on him to be honest. He ran in Listed bumpers at Ascot and Newbury and then went to Cheltenham and Aintree which for a young horse is tough.
He also had a little eye issue before the start of last season. But he did well, beating Lalor and Summerville Boy at Cheltenham early in the season and I thought he ran quite well when sixth in the Sky Bet Supreme at the Festival. I just felt he’s better than that and he didn’t quite get home at Aintree on the soft ground.
He will stay two and a half in time but he’s not short of pace and I’d be looking to start him out in the Greatwood Hurdle. From a mark of 145 I hope he can be really competitive as I think he’s a Graded horse in the making still. He’s adaptable in terms of the ground but wouldn’t want extremes.
EMITOM
He won his only outing in a Warwick bumper back in April. It didn’t come as a huge shock to us as he’d been showing all the right signs at home and he travelled really well.
The form isn’t much to write home about but he won pretty well and if we’ve got a novice hurdler that could go to the top then it might just be him.
Put it this way, he’s in Cole Harden’s box so he’s obviously got a lot to live up to! He works well anyway and we’re hoping to get him out in the next couple of weeks to see what he can do over hurdles on the track.
KEEPER HILL
He was a good staying novice chaser last season but it ended with disappointment as he fell at Musselburgh and Cheltenham before being pulled up at the end of the season at Ayr.
His rating has come down a bit as a result and I think he can wins races but his jumping will need to have improved. He’s very talented on his day. At Cheltenham he only got over a few fences and we probably should have gone for a smaller race as opposed to going to Ayr to get his confidence back. He had a kissing spine and was operated on over the summer, but he is back in now.
He will start over hurdles and will go to Wetherby for the West Yorkshire Hurdle. I still think there is a bit he could do over hurdles.
THEATRE TERRITORY
She’s had a little wind operation recently and hopefully that will help her find that extra bit of improvement.
I still can’t believe she wasn’t quite able to win a race last season but she barely put a foot wrong all year and kept running incredibly well in defeat.
She’s another who could go down the Grand National route although she’d have to go up a fair bit in the weights if she’s to get into the race. The Becher is an early-season option but she’s not short of potential targets and I still think she’s quite well handicapped.
MULCAHYS HILL
He came to us after winning his point-to-point over three miles in Ireland so we knew he could motor after he was able to win a bumper for us over two miles.
He won his maiden at Ffos Las and then went down by a short-head to Poetic Rhythm in the Grade One Challow Hurdle at Newbury which was a fantastic effort in defeat.
There was no fluke about it in my view and although things didn’t go his well in two starts earlier this year, we’ve got high hopes for him. He will go chasing and will be better over fences. He is one of my favourite horses in training. I don’t think he would be far off winning a Grade One in bottomless ground, he handles soft very well and he's a good jumper.
LOVENORMONEY
He’s very good in the mud and will be useful in the winter months. He’s going novice chasing and was rated 140 over hurdles so should progress nicely if taking to it.
CARNSPINDLE
She’s a 129-rated mare who will go novice chasing this year. Hopefully she can step up again as her form plateaued over hurdles a bit. She should be a better chaser and has schooled well.
PETTICOAT TAILS
Similarly to Western Ryder, I think the previous year’s bumper campaign took a lot out of her but she did manage to win a couple of times in novice hurdles. She'll stay over the smaller obstacles and I think she's up to Listed level.
YOUNG LIEUTENANT
He was just a little sorry for himself for a day after his jabs a couple of weeks ago but has picked up very nicely now.
He’s a nice novice hurdler and could definitely be a horse to follow. I think he’ll start over two miles but will get further as he goes on.
EVRON
It’s hard to get a gauge on the French imports as they’re trained a little bit differently over there and he was unfortunately unplaced at Carlisle last week. I'm sure he'll have learnt plenty from that and I think the inside track there probably caught him out as it's tight on the bends. He might go up a little bit in distance as we go along and will appreciate a drop of rain too, but I think his mark will be workable in time.
ROCK MY STYLE
He's one for the winter months and is a strong stayer. He doesn’t do much at home but he’s tough. He’s built for chasing and hopefully he can make his mark in staying division.
JAMMIN MASTERS
He likes soft ground and wants a trip. Three miles on soft ground could see him develop into a good horse.
GANGSTER
He is a Grade Three winner and a proper Saturday horse. He is still a novice and could develop into a nice staying chaser.
BEGBIE
He got a slight stress fracture behind, but he is fine now. He has had a long time out, but I think he is up there with my best novice hurdlers.
ANOTHER EMOTION
Max McNeil has purchased half of him with Terry Warner. He was second at Chepstow and won at Ffos Las. He will stay over hurdles as he has only had two runs in points. He is a nice chasing type.
ARTICLE FIFTY
I should have put him away after winning a bumper at Uttoxeter. He got stuck in the mud at Bangor and Kempton and ran really well to finish second at Newbury. He is exciting for this season over timber.
DRUMLEE WATAR
He was bought after winning his three mile point-to-point in Ireland back in May and has done everything right so far. He's got a couple of entries this week and will likely start off over two and a half miles.
PORTRUSH TED
He’s unfortunately ruled out for the season which is a real pity as he looked a nice staying prospect for novice hurdles. I’m sure he’ll be back at some stage but it’s not been straightforward with him and sadly he won’t be seen this year.
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