Gary Brown has moved his training operation to Henrietta Knight’s West Lockinge yard, near Wantage, while building work takes place at Tony McCoy’s Upper Lambourn stables.

The 47-year-old has been based at the 18-time champion jockey’s Lodge Down Stables at Upper Lambourn for the last three years.

But when work got under way there recently, he was left looking for a temporary home for his string of around 15 horses, and agreed a six-month deal to use the yard where Knight enjoyed such success with the likes of Best Mate and Edredon Bleu before her retirement last year.

“One of the barns was knocked down for his new house,” says Brown of the building at McCoy’s yard.

“And the second barn has just been knocked down to be replaced by a 30-stable American barn.

“I schooled a couple of horses here and just got chatting to Hen, and asked her if I could move in on a temporary basis.

“The facilities are first-class and very horse friendly. She is always available for advice as is McCoy. I am very lucky – they are both great.”

His friendship with the record-breaking champion jockey goes back to his days in the saddle – and hails from a shared love of Arsenal FC.

“I was riding at Newton Abbot and then at Exeter the next day, and I was in an obscure leisure centre in the sauna and this fellow walked in with Arsenal shorts,” he says.

“We started talking because he had Arsenal shorts on, and I support them and we have been friends ever since.”

Brown got into the sport after going on holiday with a group, which included Sussex trainer Gary Moore, who asked him to come and ride out.

“I didn’t ride a horse until I was 22 or 23 or something like that, and that was it,” he says.

Brown was bitten by the bug, and embarked on a career as an amateur rider, which peaked in glorious fashion when he rode Killeshin for the late John Manners, who trained at Highworth.

The pair won at 100-1 at Leicester, before following up at Fontwell, and then he enjoyed his greatest hour in the saddle when his mount collared Brown Windsor to land the Martell Fox Hunters’ Chase over the Grand National fences at Aintree in 1994.

Buoyed by that success, Brown turned professional, but his time in the paid ranks proved short-lived.

Riding 66-1 outsider Regal Aura in a novices’ chase at Uttoxeter, he was fired into the turf at the first fence, bringing down the ironically-named No Pain No Gain I and Rully.

“Large Action was making his chasing debut,” he recalls. “There were six in the race and I think three of us fell at the first fence. The next thing I knew I was in the John Radcliffe.”

A ruptured spleen and pancreas signalled the end of his riding days.

But he took out a licence to train in 1998-99, enjoying success with the hunter chaser Marching Marquis.

The gelding reeled off a hat-trick of wins at Sandown, Huntingdon and Newbury, before finishing second to Honey Mount in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2000.

His best season saw him record ten winners in the 2003-4 jumps campaign, and although he hasn’t matched that tally since, he is hoping for an upturn in his fortunes with his dual-purpose team.

“Most of the runners have won in their grade, but sadly there are no Best Mates in the gang,” he says referring to Knight’s triple Cheltenham Gold Cup hero.

The chaser Chestnut Ben, who has been out of the first three only once in his last 13 starts, is Brown’s standard bearer.

Hilali, owned by McCoy’s boss, JP McManus, has won under both codes, while Rosslyn Castle is expected to break his duck over hurdles.

Of his Flat team, the sprinter O’Gorman won at Windsor in June, and Dove Mountain, formerly trained by Aidan O’Brien, is an interesting recruit for the all-weather season.