G-MEN ARE ON MARCH

Nick Townsend talks to Oliver Greenall about link-up with Josh Guerriero

- Nick Townsend

Not so long ago, Oliver Greenall, a former top amateur and point-to-point rider, was farming Aberdeen Angus cattle and quietly developing a training career amid the rich pastures of Cheshire.

And then he made a decision that has transformed his Stockton Hall Farm into a formidable training operation. He invited his friend and former riding adversary Josh Guerriero, first to become his business partner and then to join him on a dual training licence less than three years ago.

Few pairings have progressed so dramatically as the G-men - as they may well become more popularly known since joining forces.

Greenall had benefitted from spells with Mick Easterby and, more briefly, Sir Mark Prescott, when he set up as a trainer in 2011-12. Meanwhile Guerriero was demonstrating his training potential with three years as assistant to none less than Dan Skelton at the infancy of the now leading trainer's career.

"It was a slow burner," Greenall explains how the current set-up has evolved. "I was doing a lot of farming and doing the racing on the side.

Then I took a major decision in 2016 that if I was going to do it, I needed to do it properly. I got Josh on board (initially as a business partner). We had a dozen horses and kept building from there." Guerriero's name was added to the licence for the 2022-23 season.

"Today," says, Greenall of his idyllic training centre, close to the market town of Malpas. "We have 90 horses stabled, and around 80 in full work and we have over 400 owners." These patrons are a highly diverse group, from such illustrious names as JP McManus, whose Iroko gave the joint-licensees their first Cheltenham Festival triumph last year, and is being targeted at the Grand National, to syndicate and club members.