Category: Trainers and Owners

Property tycoon William ‘Bill’ Gredley, who also owns Stretchworth Park Stud in Newmarket, has been an influential figure in British horse racing, under both codes, for decades. Most recently his familiar racing silks – yellow, black and yellow striped sleeves, white cap – were carried to victory by Allmankind, whom he owns jointly with his son, Tim, in the Old Roan Chase at Aintree in October, 2021.

As far as British Classics are concerned, Gredley has won not one, but two, with the same horse. In 1992, the Slip Anchor filly User Friendly, whom he bred and owned, won her first six starts, including the Oaks, Irish Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and St. Leger. Trained by the globe-trotting Clive Brittain, User Friendly was subsequently beaten favourite in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp and the Japan Cup at Tokyo, but was, nonetheless, named European Horse of the Year.

Down the years, Gredley has also tried, and failed, to win the Derby on more than one occasion. In 1991, for example, Environment Friend won the Dante Stakes at York and the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown either side of finishing only eleventh, beaten 41 lengths, behind Generous in the Derby at Epsom. Gredley said later, ‘…he just didn’t fire at Epsom.’ Likewise, Chancellor, who won the Sandown Classic Trial in 2001, was barely sighted behind Galileo at Epsom, trailing in tenth, beaten 15½ lengths.

At an early stage of the 2021/22 National Hunt season, owner Roger Brookhouse has had 25 runners and four winners, earning nearly £47,000 prize money, and currently lies eleventh in the Jump Owners’ Championship. Of the horses he has run so far in 2021/22, the ‘best’ or, in other words, the highest rated according to the official British Horseracing Authority (BHA) handicapper, is Black Op. The 10-year-old Sandmason gelding was rated 153 when finishing down the field in the Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019, but has since dropped to a mark of 145 after a disappointing chasing career during which he has won just once in 11 starts over regulation fences.

Of the horses that have won, so far, this season, Rock On Rocco, who is 2-4 over fences, is officially rated 127, while Champagne City, who is 2-5 over hurdles, is rated 126. In recent seasons, the highest-rated horse to grace Brookhouse’s light blue and pink colours was Summerville Boy, who won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018. Another Sandmason gelding, Summerville Boy was rated 155 when last seen in public, in the Relkeel Hurdle at Kempton in January, 2021. He is still listed under ‘Horses in Training’ on trainer Tom George’s website but, for whatever reason, his name no longer appears in the BHA ratings database. I have been unable to find any news of his retirement, injury or worse, so his fate remains something of a mystery.

Multi-millionaire owner/breeder Jeffrey ‘Jeff’ Smith raced his first horse, Rush Bond, in 1976 but, since 1984, the majority of his horses have been bred at his own Littleton Stud, near Winchester, Hamsphire. Never one to seek the limelight, Smith has, nonetheless, bred and owned some truly outstanding racehorses, including Chief Singer and Lochsong, who both won three Group 1 races apiece.

Indeed, Lochsong, who won the Stewards’ Cup, Portland Handicap and Ayr Gold Cup in 1992, followed by the Nunthorpe Stakes and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 1993 and the Prix de l’Abbaye again in 1994, was his most successful horse ever. Of the 1993 Cartier Horse of the Year, Smith said, ‘It’s one of the great sights of racing at the moment, Lochsong bursting out of the stalls and leading her rivals a merry dance. She’s a wonderful character. Ian [Balding] is convinced she knows when she has won.’

Although Smith is primarily an owner/breeder, his most recent Group 1 winner, Alcohol Free, was a rare purchase. Bought for €40,000 as a foal, Alcohol Free won the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and has, so far, amassed over £1 million in prize money. At the last count, Smith had 11 Group 1 wins to his name at home and abroad.

Nowadays occupying nearly 1,000 acres in the hamlet of the same name, Cheveley Park Stud has the distinction of being the oldest stud farm in Newmarket and, probably, the oldest stud farm in England. Cheveley Park Stud rose to prominence in the early nineteenth century, under the auspices of John Manners, Fifth Duke of Rutland. Manners bred four Classic winners, including the 1928 Derby winner, Cadland, who initially dead-heated with The Colonel before winning the subsequent run-off. He also planted a tree-lined avenue, known as ‘Duchess Drive’, in memory of his wife, Elizabeth, Duchess of Rutland, who died in 1825 at the age of 45.

A 7,800-acre estate in its heyday in the late nineteenth century, Cheveley Park Stud had dwindled away to just 270 acres, and was in the hands of the official receiver, when bought by the current owner, Patricia Thompson, in 1975. In fact, Mrs. Thompson purchased Cheveley Park Stud together with the husband, David Thompson, and they continued as co-owners until his death, from renal failure, in January, 2021, aged 84.

In the 46 years since Mr. & Mrs. Thompson took over, it would be fair to say that Cheveley Park Stud has undergone a resurgence, to the extent that it is one of the most important breeding and ownership operations in the country. Its distinctive red, white and blue colours are a familiar sight on British racecourses and, during the 2021 Flat Owners’ Championship, were carried to victory 34 times, thereby earning over £964,000 in prize money.