Bill and Tim Gredley at his Stetchworth Park Stud home in Newmarket. Bill seeks Derby glory while Tim hopes to be part of the Great British Olympic Team. Photo: David Rose
Bill Gredley, businessman, art collector, racehorse owner, ninety-year-old, eccentric, father of an Olympic hopeful, always liked to metaphorically throw a hand grenade into monasteries, stand back and enjoy the reaction, good or bad.
If the orthodox lane is the one marked on the right, then here is the man with the twinkling eye who turns left every time. Once, before it was fashionable, he wore a ponytail in honor of Royal Ascot — an establishment reaction befitting a Bateman cartoon.
Of course, nonconformity, spontaneity and risks that others would not take served the purpose good service to him throughout his life; he went from being the son of a working-class docker to becoming a multimillionaire commercial real estate owner. Perhaps “My Way” was actually written for him.
And that partly explains several aspects of his involvement in the 245th Betfred Derby at Epsom on Saturday, as well as why he owns big shot Ambiente Friendly in the first place. Who goes and sits at a thoroughbred auction, chooses nine two-year-olds he likes, almost on a whim, as they pass him into the ring on his 90th birthday, and ends up being the second favorite in the Derby? Looks like £80,000 was well spent.
That foul-mouthed, nonconformist gene was also at work earlier this week when he made the potentially unorthodox decision to replace Lingfield Derby-winning Callum Shepherd on a colt not recognized as champion or transatlantic SOS Frankie. Dettori in California, but, oddly enough, with Rab Havlin, a good, solid jockey, but clearly no better than Shepherd.
Gredley owns Ambiente Friendly, one of the favorites for Saturday's Epsom Derby. Photo: Racing Post/Edward Whitaker
It's the same with his art. Expensive commissions in the Unex boardroom (he moved the company's locks, stocks and barrel from London to his home at Stetchworth Park Stud in Newmarket) sit alongside reproductions of old masters and famous paintings that could probably be picked up at a market stall. next to the Embankment. There are more statues outside than there is a sculpture park. Eclecticism does not hide this.
It was he who commissioned the brilliant «The Union of Two Societies», a sculpture of dockers and royalty set against the backdrop of Harland and Wolf Gate and the old Ascot Gate (which was made in the old dockyard), which is located between the Royal and Queen Anne buildings at Ascot Racecourse. This is an allegory of racing.
But it was he who commissioned the (ugly, in my opinion) 13-foot mortar board for the head of «Prince Philip» or «Don» — it has several names, and even the «artist» disowned it — near one of his properties in Cambridge. which the council asked him to remove. It appeared in the news and on the Have I Got New For You website.
Gradley Commission «Uniting Two Societies», an allegory of racing , has earned praise… Photo: Getty Images/Edward Whitaker 
…although Gredley's commission was not well liked by the public and, more importantly, by the Cambridge Council, which ordered him to cancel it. Photo: Cambridge Independent/Kate Heppell «He confuses people because he doesn't have a face,» Gredley says. “Where tourists flock.”
And talk about how to make an old man happy? This is a fight he will enjoy, and one I know the council will regret ever starting.
But just as the old soldiers who fought in the Second World War are dwindling, so too are the number of evacuated children who were taken from London to escape the bombs to be «adopted» by families in safer places — he is one of the few who remained.
He was taken in by a family of Welsh miners. “They had a big tin bathtub that they filled with water and lit a fire under,” he recalls. “When it was hot and the husband, Mr. Harry, was returning from work, we all had to leave the room while his wife washed him.”
A year later, his father took him back to the house. London, and when the East End was bombed, he went to Essex with his grandmother. When she was handed a CPO (compulsory purchase order) for a property she owned in London, he looked into it, gave her some extra money, someone intervened in another deal and he went into commercial real estate.
He started racing after meeting someone at Mark's club. “There were horse racing people there and someone took me to the races and I ended up having a few horses with him,” he recalls. “Then I met [trainer] Clive Britten, who had a knack for coaxing monkeys out of trees. Then, when I moved from London, I bought Stetchworth Park Stud [in 1980], went to Keeneland and bought 20 horses to run it.»
It is believed that in those early days Britten asked he brought his two horses, a colt and a filly, to the stud farm for the holidays, and he turned them out into the same paddock. “It’s like putting a man and a woman in the same bed,” he laughs.
Unlike Ambiente Friendly, his previous top horse Friend of the Environment — who beat two at home in the Derby before winning the Eclipse next time — User Friendly, an Oaks and St Leger winner who has just been knocked off the arc, and Gold Cup winner Big Orange were all homegrown.
“Steve Coten used to rent a cottage on the estate and come over for dinner the night after he won the Derby. on Slip Anchor,” Gredley recalls. “I told Steve that I would buy the nomination that the horses would give him when he went to the stud for the mare, which I named Rostova. The mare foaled, we got what we got, and that's racing. All this [User Friendly] happened at that dinner party.”
Purchasing nine two-year-olds at a sale a year ago was another addition to stock. “I also wanted to give [paralyzed former jockey] Freddie Tylicki a commission,” he notes. “I've always liked Freddie, and he's giving me some clues.
“He almost ran me over with his motorcycle, saying he liked the horse and that I should see it. It was a little weak, narrow. He asked, “What do you think?” and I replied, “Not really.” But we watched footage of him jumping and he moved well. I really wanted Freddie to be the center of attention, so I said, “You're bidding,” and signed a check for £80,000. So it was Freddie who told me about Ambiente Friendly — he put me in good horses.»
A bit exhausted from the whole amazing event, the colt, one of nine bought at the Gredley 90th birthday sale, did a little work and finished it in a foam of sweat, so he was sent to a stud farm for four months to get his head straight and growing. “Some others did it too,” Gredley notes of his unorthodox purchasing method.
«We were hoping he would win the trial but he didn't [by four and a half lengths.» ]. This is very interesting, maybe I should be even more worried. I've won some good races here and in the US. I started with User Friendly and compare everything to it. She was so good that she scared everyone else away.”
It's not just a big week for Gredley, it's a big summer. His son Tim, 38, a partner at Ambiente Friendly and now active in Unex, is longlisted for the British Olympic show jumping team with his horses Imperial HBF and Medoc de Toxandria.
It will be a busy few weeks for Gredley as Bill's son Tim is busy trying to make the British Olympic show jumping team. Photo: David Rose for The Telegraph 
Tim Gredley will race from St Gallen, Switzerland, on Saturday to watch the Epsom Derby and then race back to compete in the Grand Prix Show Jumping. Photo: David Rose for The Telegraph
Each weekend for the next three weeks is essentially a test for the Paris team, with six riders vying for three places alongside reigning Olympic champion Ben Maher and Gredley on Friday. St. Gallen, Switzerland, fly back to the Derby and then return to the show to compete in the Grand Prix on Friday. Saturday night.
I jumped at the World Championships aged 20 but then gave up point running — 'I was absolutely terrible but drove Rolls Royces, including Silver Grove, which I just had to stay,” he says modestly, “and immerse himself in his father’s business, now he’s back in the big life.
“It’s a little like having your favorite runner run in the Derby,” he says about Olympic selection. “I’m honored to be part of the conversation.”
On the other hand, trying to keep my father from talking is a different story.
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