Trainers

Ruth Carr is the granddaughter of the late David Chapman, who handled the prolific winning sprinters Soba, Glencroft and Chaplins Club, to name but three, and took over the training licence from her father on his retirement in 2008. A former leading amateur rider on the Flat, Carr is

Mowbray House Farm, in the village of Stillington, about 10 miles north of York, in North Yorkshire, where she remains very much a ‘hands on’ trainer.

Strictly speaking, Carr hold a dual-purpose licence, but her infrequent forays into the sphere of National Hunt racing have yielded just half a dozen of her over 500 career winners. On the Flat, though, she enjoyed her most successfully season, numerically and fiscally, in 2017, when she saddled 49 winners and amassed £567, 022 in total prize money.

Far and away her best horse so far was Sovereign Debt, whom she acquired from her grandfather’s former stable jockey, the late David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls, in March 2017. All told, she saddled the Black Angel gelding to three ‘black type’ victories, namely the Group 2 Sandown Mile, the Group 3 Diomed Stakes at Epsom and the Listed Ganton Stakes at Yprk in 2017 and 2018.

 

website: https://www.ruthcarrracing.co.uk/

news: https://www.ruthcarrracing.co.uk/news/

social: https://www.facebook.com/RuthCarrRacingLtd/?locale=en_GB

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contact / email: ruth@ruthcarrracing.co.uk

Based at Stockton Hall Farm in Oldcastle, near Malpas, Cheshire, Oliver Greenall spent five years as assistant trainer Mick Easterby before branching out on his own in 2015. Training in his own name, he enjoyed his most successful National Hunt season, numerically, in 2021/22, when he saddled 37 winners from 329 runners, at a strike rate of 11%. Having fallen just one short of that total in 2021/22, at the start 2022/23 season, he joined forces with his former weighing room colleague, Joshua ‘Josh’ Guerriero, under a joint-licence arrangement.

Having previously worked for Phillip Hobbs, Victor Dartnall and Dan Skelton, Guerriero had been a partner in the business – previously Oliver Greenall Racing and, nowadays Greenall Guerriero Racing – and assistant to Greenall for six years before his name appeared on the licence. The pair had their first official runner together, Gareth Cael, in a novices’ handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter on April 30, 2022 and, in the 2022/23 season as a whole, saddled 62 winners from 332 runners, at a healthy strike rate of 19%. On March 17, 2023, they saddled their first Cheltenham Festival winner, Iroko, in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle and, on November 17, 2023, saddled their first Graded winner, Homme Public, in the November Novices’ Chase, also at Cheltenham.

 

website: https://greenall-guerriero.co.uk/

news: https://greenall-guerriero.co.uk/news/

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https://twitter.com/G_G_Racing

contact / email:  ocg@stocktonhall.co.uk

Based in Knockeen, County Waterford, where he took over the licence from his father, Harry, in 2000, Henry de Bromhead is firmly established as a leading National Hunt trainer on both sides of the Irish Sea. He saddled his first Grade 1 winner, Sizing Europe, in the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown in January 2008 and has since added another 56, at home and abroad, to his career total. His ability to prepare horses for the big occasion is unquestionable. At the Cheltenham Festival, for example, his 23 career winners include Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle in 2021 and 2022 and Minella Indo and A Plus Tard in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2021 and 2022. Indeed, in 2021, de Bromhead also saddled Put The Kettle On to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase, making him the first trainer in history to win all three ‘feature’ races at the same Cheltenham Festival.

Just three weeks later, de Bromhead made further history when he saddled Minella Times, ridden by Rachael Blackmore, to win the Grand National at Aintree. Having her third ride in the race, Blackmore, of course, became the first female jockey to win the world-famous steeplechase. Just for good measure, de Bromhead also saddled the runner-up, 100/1 outsider according to GrandNationalBetting, ridden by Aidan Coleman, thereby becoming just the second trainer – and the first since William Costello in 1908 – to be responsible for the first two horses home.

Minella Times was brought down at Valentine’s Brook on the first circuit, when well-fancied, on his return to Aintree in 2022. More recently, though, trainer de Bromhead also saddled his former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Minella Indo, again ridden by Rachael Blackmore, to finish an 8-length third at Aintree, having led over the final fence, in 2024. That result took his overall Grand National record to one win, one second-place and one third-place finish from his 15 runners to date. It is also worth noting that, in recent years, de Bromhead has made a habit of having multiple runners in the National, three in 2021, two in both 2022 and 2023 and three, again, in 2024.

At the time of writing, the 2025 renewal of the Grand National, scheduled for Saturday, April 12, is many months away, but, as usual, ante-post prices are available well in advance. Of possible de Bromhead-trained runners, Minella Indo, who will be a 12-year-old by then, is a top-priced 33/1 to go two places better, while Ain’t That A Shame, who has twice completed the National Course, finishing seventeenth in 2023 and sixth in 2024 is a top-priced 66/1.

Nowadays based at Howe Hill Stables, a 100-box, state-of-the-art training facility in Morden, near Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, Rebecca Menzies had the distinction of being the youngest trainer in Britain when she first took out a licence in her own right, at the age of 24, in 2013. However, despite having no racing background, she worked her way through the ranks, from stables lass to assistant trainer, with the late Fredy Murphy before starting up on her own.

Initially based at Brandsby in North Yorkshire, Menzies took a few seasons to break into double figures, but reached the milestone of 200 winners in November 2021 and has continued in similar fashion ever since. On the Flat, she achieved her highest seasonal tally, 32 winners, for the first time in 2022 and repeated the feat in 2023. In that sphere, she achieved her first, and so far only, ‘black type’ success courtesy of Stormy Girl in the Listed Flying Fillies’ Stakes at Pontefract in August 2020.

Under National Hunt Rules, Menzies has two further Listed victories to her name. In March 2022, she saddled Fonzerelli won with the Virgin Bet Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Doncaster and, the following month, Return Ticket to win the Scotty Brand Handicap Chase at Ayr. That pair contributed to a seasonal total of 40 winners, her best so far, and £429,753 in prize money in 2022/23.

website: https://rebeccamenziesracing.co.uk/

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contact / email: rebecca@rebeccamenziesracing.co.uk