In the autumn of 2016, Greatrex needed to find an owner for Attest, a gelding he’d purchased at the sales who he hoped might make into a decent jumper. Instead, he decided to play matchmaker and found five.
One of the quintet, Phil Molony, had been involved with racehorses before.
“I’m a Tipperary man and bred a few with my father, but we didn’t have a lot of luck,” he explains. “I was working away for a few years but when I came back I had a nice Trans Island filly out of a mare I had at home and I didn’t want to put it into training in Ireland.
“A friend of mine, Joao de Mata, was friends with Andrew Balding where Eddy Greatrex was based and that’s how we came to send GVS Irportensa to him and we just hit it off.
“Warren is very good at putting people together. He just seems to know who will get on with each other and it’s proved a great success. He’s like racing’s very own cupid when it comes to syndicate pairings.
“There is a core three or four of us and we have bought a few friends in to get involved in a couple of new horses.
“The thing about National Hunt racing is that, if you’re lucky, you might have a horse to race for six, seven, eight years. It’s been one of the best things I’ve ever done.
“I’m sure there must be syndicates that don’t work, where those involved don’t get on, but I can’t say a bad word about the group of people I’m with.
We went for a meal at Gaucho’s recently when we were finalising one of the syndicates and what was supposed to have been a light lunch just kept going. I don’t know what time I got home as I don’t remember.
“We’ve ended up going racing everywhere together, staying away a few times, either the night before or the night after, and often squeezing in a round of golf. We even managed to get a round together at the K Club before going racing on the Thursday Punchestown Festival last year although to say I play golf is a bit unfair. Charles actually plays golf, while I embarrass myself.
“Warren’s not a bad golfer, although he’s less good as a drinker as he keeps excusing himself and saying he has some horses to train.” Molony’s co-owner Charles Sutton says he can attest to the lack of golfing prowess of his friends.
“Warren has managed to find us a couple of the worst golfers in the world, but it’s been a lot of fun,” he says. “I’ve been involved with the yard for a bit longer than Phil having set up the No Dramas Partnership with a friend and we’ve had a lot of success given the fact that we’re not operating at the top level financially.
“I’m also involved in Bob Mahler, who was the horse who took us to Punchestown last season, although he managed to fall at the first hurdle, which is the way it has to go sometimes.
“But we get involved as much as we can with the yard because they’re good people who make us feel welcome. We go to all of the golf days, get to meet people in the sport, and it’s great. Obviously it doesn’t always work out like you’d want it to and you have to be prepared to lose money, but there are a lot of laughs along the way. We haven’t quite made it to the winner’s enclosure at the Cheltenham Festival yet but we’ll keep trying!”
Lee Bolingbroke has been a punter and professional tipster for almost two decades, and his colours have been carried successfully by several smart performers on the Flat and over jumps. His golf skills may not also be up to much, according to his co-owners but he’s happy to have found like-minded people to share ownership with.
“I’ve had a number of horses with Warren, of whom Shantou Bob was probably the highest-rated,” he says.
“I think it’s about 24-25 different winners I’ve been involved with now, but the beauty of what Warren has done here is put together people who wouldn’t have otherwise got involved with each other and might not even have met otherwise. I like a bet but a couple of the others don’t and that works fine”
“There are obvious benefits to sharing ownership – I’m not sure I’d want to be involved with dozens of other owners in a horse, but if you can take a leg or half a leg with between four or eight people, it divides the risk and gives you people to share the enjoyment with.
“I’ve even got a share in a horse on the Flat called Another Batt with George Scott through Excel Racing, the syndicate set up by footballer Charlie Austin and Paul Fisher.
“Another Batt finished placed in Listed races in his final three starts as a two-year-old. Again, it was down to Warren really as he had been speaking about Charlie so I sent him a Twitter message without having really met him and now I’m involved with that too – Warren has a lot to answer for!”
