Gresham Wood

1904-1982

Born in 1904, Gresham Sidney Wood was a prominent amateur rider during the 1930s, amassing a total of 40 winners under National Hunt rules. He was also a dual champion point-to-point rider.

He won 14 point-to-points – all Farmers’ race – on King’s Ransom, including five years (1928-32) in a row at the Croome. He also completed the course on that horse in the 1931 National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham.

His debut under NH rules had ended in a fall from a horse named Silver Morsel in the Sutton Selling Chase at Birmingham on February 13, 1928. Two and a half years would pass before he rode his first winner, but when he did, they came in numbers – six in the space of six weeks.

Gresham's first winner under NH rules, a 13-year-old gelding named Braemer, trained by Ben Roberts at Prestbury, Cheltenham, rendered him leading jockey for half an hour by landing the opening race of the 1930/31 season, the two-mile Highweek Selling Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot on Monday, August 4, 1930. They won again the very next day at the same venue in the three-mile one-furlong Stayers’ Selling Handicap Chase. Later that month, they won on consecutive days at Devon Exeter. That was followed by victory at Plymouth on September 3. Following a three-length defeat by the useful Youtell, the mount of Peter Cazalet, in South Devon Chase at Totnes on September 11, a return to selling company at Newton Abbot six days later saw Gresham and Braemer win for the sixth time in seven starts.

Despite having won six races in the opening six weeks of the season, Gresham did not win another all term. He only had two wins in the 1931/32 campaign, both over hurdles: Anchor Watch at Hereford on Easter Monday and Ballykinler at Woore in May. Ballykinler was also the first of three winners he rode during the 1932/33 season, to be followed by novice chaser Lord Puttenden at Colwall Park in March. He was then gifted a walkover on Minstrel Boy in the Viscount Tredegar’s Challenge Cup Hunter Chase at Newport at the final meeting of the season.

Returning to Colwall Park on October 26 that year, Gresham recorded his only double under NH rules on Lucelle in the Bosbury Optional Selling Hurdle and Gate Book in the Herefordshire Amateur Riders’ Handicap Chase. He won another amateur riders’ chase on Gate Book the following month, this time at Chepstow. Victory on Chadd’s Ford in the Corinthian Handicap Chase at Lingfield in February 1934 was Gresham’s 15th under NH rules and resulted in him losing the right to claim an allowance.

He equalled his best season’s total of six wins in 1934/35, all six coming in the spring between late March and the start of May. He was also the country’s leading point-to-point rider for the first time in 1935 with 10 wins (plus three in hunter chases) including a treble at the Cotswold meeting, where he finished second in the members’ race on his only other mount.

He again rode six winners in the 1935/36 NH campaign, four of which came courtesy of handicap chaser Blackgang Lad, owned and trained by his good friend Ronnie Holman, for whom Gresham would ride a good many winners.

He completed the course in three consecutive renewals of Cheltenham’s National Hunt Chase, finishing fifth on Ebon Knight in 1934, eleventh on Paulerspury in 1935, and fifth again on Ben Lomond II in 1936.

The 1936/37 season yielded just a single success – Young Flinty in the Champagne Cup Handicap Chase at Fontwell Park on Whit Monday – but was again the leading point-to-point rider in 1937 with seven winners, although this time he had to share the title with Captain J.P.A. Graham, of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry.

Gresham once more notched six wins in the 1937/38 campaign, including a brace of hunter chases on Jimmy Grey, who was also one of his four wins in 1938/39 when surviving an objection from the runner-up for “being bumped from the last fence to the finish” in the Viscount Tredegar’s Challenge Cup Handicap Chase at Newport on Whit Monday.

Less than a month before war was declared, Gresham rode Jimmy Grey to land the Dartmoor Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot on the opening day of what would prove to be a much-curtailed 1939/40 season. It was the last winner he rode for almost eight years.

That post-war success – his last under NH rules – came courtesy of 5-4 on favourite Merry Knight, owned by Major Harold Rushton, in the Hunters’ Grand National Trial Maiden Chase at Towcester on Easter Monday, April 7, 1947.

He rode for the final time under NH rules when finishing sixth on Just Shiny in the Open Hunters’ Chase at Newport on May 15, 1948.

Gresham Wood died in 1982.

Gresham Wood’s winners under National Hunt rules were, in chronological order:

1. Braemer, Newton Abbot, August 4, 1930

2. Braemer, Newton Abbot, August 5, 1930

3. Braemer, Devon & Exeter, August 27, 1930

4. Braemer, Devon & Exeter, August 28, 1930

5. Braemer, Plymouth, September 3, 1930

6. Braemer, Newton Abbot, September 17, 1930

7. Anchor Watch, Hereford, March 28, 1932

8. Ballykinler, Woore, May 12, 1932

9. Ballykinler, Derby, December 19, 1932

10. Lord Puttenden, Colwall Park, March 30, 1933

11. Minstrel Boy, Newport, June 6, 1933 (walkover)

12. Lucelle, Colwall Park, October 26, 1933

13. Gate Book, Colwall Park, October 26, 1933

14. Gate Book, Chepstow, November 17, 1933

15. Chadd’s Ford, Lingfield Park, February 23, 1934

16. Paulerspury, Rugby Hunt, March 30, 1935

17. Young Flinty, Ludlow, April 4, 1935

18. Young Flinty, Cheltenham, April 11, 1935

19. Ebon Knight, Colwall Park, April 15, 1935

20. Eccentricity, Hereford, April 22, 1935

21. Blackgang Lad, Oswestry & Llanymynech, May 4, 1935

22. Blackgang Lad, Totnes, September 5, 1935

23. Blackgang Lad, Newton Abbot, September 11, 1935

24. Ophella Bush, Pershore, October 18, 1935

25. Blackgang Lad, Birmingham, November 25, 1935

26. Blackgang Lad, Birmingham, February 24, 1936

27. Carmus, Beaufort Hunt, April 4, 1936

28. Young Flinty, Fontwell Park, May 17, 1937

29. Sammy, Uttoxeter, October 11, 1937

30. Blackgang Lad, Cheltenham, December 29, 1937

31. Roi Tondell, Chepstow, April 16, 1938

32. Tartlet, Bangor-on-Dee, April 23, 1938

33. Jimmy Grey, Uttoxeter, May 17, 1938

34. Jimmy Grey, Southwell, June 4, 1938

35. Sammy, Newton Abbot, August 2, 1938

36. Cactus II, Cardiff, April 27, 1939

37. Brimfull, Newton Abbot, May 3, 1939

38. Jimmy Grey, Newport, May 29, 1939

39. Jimmy Grey, Newton Abbot, August 7, 1939

40. Merry Knight, Towcester, April 7, 1947