Article by Chris Pitt
Gregory John Gadd was born on January 12, 1946, the son of Wiltshire permit holder Arthur Gadd.
Arthur Gadd had first taken out a permit trainer’s licence in 1949. Based at Grange Farm, West Ashton, near Trowbridge, he combined training with running a stud farm and a dairy farm. His first good horse was King Johnny, who landed a Wincanton handicap hurdle on Easter Monday 1957, nine days after finishing second at Towcester.
Gregory Gadd took out an amateur rider’s licence for the 1961/62 season and had his first mount in public on his father’s horse Clarito at Warwick on March 5, 1962, finishing unplaced. He finished third on Clarito in a Taunton selling hurdle two months later.
He had to wait just over a year before Clarito became his first winner, landing a Devon & Exeter selling hurdle on June 3, 1963. Top amateur rider John Lawrence (later Lord Oaksey) had journeyed south especially to ride the odds-on Arctic Gittell, but Clarito turned over the hot favourite by two lengths. Another home-trained horse on which Greg gained experience during the 1962/63 season was veteran hurdler Golden Fraternity, though he failed to make the frame in seven attempts.
Arthur Gadd had a mare named Greet Alone, who produced half a dozen offspring, all of which Greg rode in races, including one that would end up being the best he ever rode. They comprised Lone Scot (by Gay Scot), who not only failed to make the frame in hunter and novice chases between 1963 and 1971 but failed to finish in most of them; the mare Rond Alone (by Rondo II) who, after several unsuccessful efforts over hurdles, finished second and third in novice chases during the opening weeks of the 1963/64 season but then fell with Greg on four consecutive occasions (Rond Alone did manage to win a couple of minor chases at the start of the 1965/66 campaign but by then he had joined another trainer and was partnered by Terry Biddlecombe); Romany Lone (by Romany Air), unplaced in four juvenile hurdles in 1965/66; Native Alone (by Indigenous) who managed to finish fourth once each over hurdles and fences in 17 races; and Natif Solitaire (also by Indigenous) who finished tailed off or pulled up in six starts over hurdles.
Easily the best of Greet Alone’s progeny was Lone Native (again by Indigenous) who provided Greg with his second winner, more than six years after the first, when landing a Chepstow novices’ hurdle on October 11, 1969. He also finished second once, three times third and twice fourth in a busy 17 race campaign.
Greg turned professional at the start of the next (1970/71) season but did not ride a winner all year. However, he made a good start to 1971/72, winning twice within five days on Lone Native in handicap hurdles at Warwick and Devon & Exeter. He achieved his third win of the season, his fifth in all, when Stay Back won a Devon & Exeter novices’ hurdle at the end of April. But that would be his last.
Arthur Gadd had a penchant for giving his horses names containing the words ‘Lone’ or ‘Native’, so in a way it is appropriate that Lone Native proved the best of the lot. Home-bred horses included Friendly Native (by Indigenous out of Golden Fraternity), Native Senorita (Indigenous out of Clarito), Native Verse (Indigenous out of Prosody), Lone Acre (Acrania out of Rond Alone) and Blue Lone (Blue Streak out of Rond Alone), while others were Royal Rondo (Prince Barle out of Rond Alone), Blue Dancer (Blue Streak out of Clarito), Carp (Heres out of Native Alone) and Prossett (Heres out of Native Verse). The last named went on to win races over hurdles and fences when trained by Auriol Finch and later by Jimmy Fox.
Greg Gadd failed to add to his tally of five winners and had his final ride on Fair Streak at Devon & Exeter on May 27, 1975. By then he’d taken out a full trainer’s licence and was based at Cherhill Down Stables, Cherhill, near Calne. He rode some his horses himself but mostly booked other jockeys.
Stay Back, his last winner as a jockey, had become his first winner as a trainer when landing a 2m 3f handicap hurdle at Devon & Exeter on September 1974, ridden by Sandy May. However, his training career failed to flourish and he relinquished his licence in 1976.
Arthur Gadd, meanwhile, continued training with a permit, his last entry in the ‘Horses in Training’ annual being in 1988. His string mainly comprised home-breds such as Blue Dancer, Blue Lone, Lone Acre, Carp and, of course, Lone Native. His colours of ‘chocolate, gold sash and cap with chocolate spots’ were seen on the west-country circuit for almost 40 years.
Alas, Lone Native proved ineffective when put over fences and proved no better when reverted to hurdles. In eight consecutive seasons, from 1972/73 to 1979/80, he achieved only one placing, a distant last of three finishers in a novice chase.
At the start of the 1981/82 season, by then aged 15, Lone Native ran in three novice chases, unseating rider in the first, tailed off last in the second, fell in the third. Finally, on September 26, 1980, he collapsed and died after passing the post in an amateur riders’ hurdle at Devon & Exeter. He deserved better than that.
Sadly, Gregory Gadd is no longer alive to recall the memory of Lone Native, having died on November 26, 2011, aged 65.
Gregory Gadd’s winners were in chronological order:
1. Clarito, Devon & Exeter, June 3, 1963
2. Lone Native, Chepstow, October 11, 1969
3. Lone Native, Warwick, September 18, 1971
4. Lone Native, Devon & Exeter, September 23, 1971
5. Stay Back, Devon & Exeter, April 27, 1972