Strangles case forces Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero to stop having runners

Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero were forced to withdraw their runners at Uttoxeter on Friday after a case of strangles at their Cheshire yard.

The Cheltenham Festival-winning joint-trainers acted quickly to minimise the risk of the disease spreading and hope to be able to have runners again within a fortnight.

All the yard's six horses declared for Uttoxeter were pulled out on Thursday evening, with the official citation of "Vets Certificate (Other)."

Explaining the situation on Friday, Guerriero said: "We've had a horse come into the yard that's tested positive for strangles.

"He didn't come into the main yard, luckily, and he's only been in contact with eight others. So hopefully we've contained it and it's separate from everything else."

Looking ahead, he said: "All the horses are getting tested tomorrow and all their temperatures seem fine. Hopefully, if we have a full negative test tomorrow and then again in ten days, we'll be fine to carry on."

Greenall and Guerriero, who have saddled ten winners this season, teamed up in 2022-23 and won the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham with Iroko in their first season. They returned to land the TrustATrader Plate at the festival with Jagwar last March. 

Strangles is a disease of the lymph nodes of the upper respiratory tract. It is the most commonly diagnosed infectious disease of horses in the world and highly contagious strangles outbreaks are thought to occur more than 600 times in Britain every year.

The now-retired Harry Whittington had a spell without runners when he dealt with an outbreak at his pre-training yard in 2022.

Previously, John O'Shea, who trained for Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin operation in Australia, was fined A$30,000 for his role in a failure to report a horse at the yard had been diagnosed with strangles and Matt Cumani was suspended from training in that country after failing to adhere to Racing Victoria protocols following an outbreak.

In light of the latest case, the BHA emailed trainers to remind them to "follow best practice and remain vigilant to the clinical signs of strangles".

It warned those who had runners at any meeting to which Greenall and Guerriero sent horses in the last 12 days to be particularly alert.

But it stressed: "The BHA has worked with the yard, its veterinary team and independent infection control expert Dr Richard Newton to develop and implement a containment and control plan.

"This builds on the stringent biosecurity measures already in place to reduce any potential risk to the other horses. All horses will undergo clearance testing and the yard will not have any runners until this process has been completed."

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