Business as usual as Big Orange prepares to defend stayers' crown

In the 1970s Bill Gredley bought Stetchworth Stud, just outside Newmarket, from the Duke of Sutherland.

It would be fanciful to regard the sale as a parable of our times but Sutherland’s family, whose dukedom dates back to 1833, owned Stafford House in London, which in the 19th and early 20th centuries was thought to be the most valuable private dwelling in the capital, whereas Gredley hails from Poplar in the East End from where he was evacuated at the height of the Blitz.

Gredley runs two empires from Stetchworth, his Unex commercial property group and his breeding operation with the best part of 20 mares. He has 28 in training and they include five with Hugo Palmer with the oldest stager being the admirable Big Orange, who is in grand order at the age of five.