The latest interview in our “Meet the Managers” series:

Noel Fehily & David Crosse have enjoyed some huge wins over succesive seasons with their syndicate. Ever-busy and always on the move we managed to get them to slow down for a moment and give us the inside story:

Q1: Hi David! You and Noel have enjoyed fantastic successes in a short period of time. Do you and Noel have any insight you can give on how you select horses and which trainers you pair them with?

“When we’re buying horses, getting the correct horse is vital. Noel has an unbelievable eye for conformation which is key because we always aim to secure value-for-money. At the sales we look over all horses individually before we look at their paper form or any races they’ve run – because if you don’t like the horse there’s no point. There are horses out there priced at 3 or 4 hundred thousand that we would turn down for much, much less because we think their conformation isn’t correct. Choosing a horse that will stand the rigours of racing is one of the key ingredients. If we haven’t ridden them before we’ll sit on a horse within 24-48hrs of purchase – I like to give them a jump because you can learn a lot even from when you lead a horse up to a hurdle and seeing how they react. Noel likes to give them a canter on his deep sand to see how they move and especially how they sound. We then sit down and put our heads together as to which trainer will have the horse as we know exactly how each trainer trains and what gallops they have – we think about what will suit that individual horse.

Q2: You’ve a reputation for shrewdness at the sales. Any tips on how you find value in a tricky and often competitive market?

“Don’t go in blind! You need a lot of help and an agent you can trust – by that I mean is the agent good on confirmation?, at understanding form?, that they know who they’re buying from?, and do those horses improve? Things like that. There are a lot of processes and thought that you must go through before you even go near the sales ring and put your hand up”

Q3: You’re known at being great with owners as your social media shows and you also work in racing hospitality – can you give us any tips on ensuring syndicate owners have a positive experience of racehorse ownership?

“When a horse goes racing you know that they are not going to win every time. When a new owner joins us and pays their share we’re very upfront and tell them to assume they’re not going to get anything back until the horse proves otherwise. We say ‘You know what you’re paying at the start, enjoy the ride and expect nothing back’ – we think that is very important because any time a horse finishes in the top three you should celebrate it like a winner. We make sure the owners are kept well-informed all the way along. We like to educate our owners along the way because it increases the enjoyment from when the horse is turned out in the field in summer getting fat to when they are brought in for training they understand what it takes in the 3-4 months before that horse is going to the races – they need to buy into that and be part of the whole journey because it means more to them when they do get that winner. It’s a journey the whole way through”

Q4. You have a strong social media presence – in your view, how important do you think having good content is to running a syndicate and attracting new owners?

“Social media is the biggest selling platform for any business in the world. 110% it gets people to our website and gets new owners. I do racecourse hospitality and attract owners that way too but social media is a great way of introducing people to the horses – Noel and I sit on the horses regularly and this content goes firstly to the owners but then out on social media too. It’s just a massive, massive selling point”

Q5 – You and Noel have recently become ambassadors for the Cotswold Riding for The Disabled, can you tell us a bit how that came about?

“We were delighted to be asked. We have an owner friend who does a lot of work for the RDA in Cheltenham and through them we got on board to help promote it. We’re going do do a few social evenings for them and some social media content to do what we can to help raise their profile. They are not funded by the government in any way at all and it costs over a quarter of a million to keep the RDA in Cheltenham going each year and all that money has to be raised. It’s a brilliant cause – when we were there a few weeks ago you could see the smiles everywhere, not just from those riding – we had people coming from nursing homes and getting in amongst the horses and you could see what a difference it made to their lives”

Q5 – Love Envoi gave you a Cheltenham winner in 2022/23 season and in 2023/24 Tahmuras gave you a Grade 1 winner in the Tolworth Hurdle. What’s coming next? Are there any horses you have we should keep an eye on?

“Oh Gosh! Plenty is the answer to that question!

Helnwein is going to be the first one I mention. He was bought as a chaser and won first time over hurdles. Circumstances didn’t allow him to win after that and he ended up on a good mark. He was slightly disappointing in novice hurdles finishing 4th in a Grade 2, but he’s too good a traveller – an absolute jet plane in his races. He needed those 2 miles at Sandown, was nicely on the bridle throughout and won. He’ll start in novice handicaps and we think he will do well climbing the ranks ready for the next season. Tahmuras is going to be an excellent handicapper, we didn’t quite get to the bottom of him this year, he’s a bit quirky but very talented. Major Fortune was a five-time winner this year and unlucky not to get the six timer up – I think he’ll keep climbing the ladder over fences next year. Hansard is probably our highest-rated horse – he’s had a couple of issues the latter half of the year but won a very good handicap at Newbury. Insurrection is going to be a very good chaser towards the back end of the season and I can see him winning a race or two before Christmas – possibly a Grade 2 at Kempton and then on to Aintree. Ski Lodge was a winner and a second in his bumpers and worth keeping an eye on. Jasmine Bliss will go for the Jane Seymour Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle – the same as Love Envoi won. Metkayina could be in a similar sort of races and could be a Cheltenham mare. Star Walking could be the same – you get excited when talking about them like this!”