FEATURE
Guineas was her sixth win from seven starts and pushed her prize money over the $1 million mark. Straight after the Flemington race she was flown home and sent to a spelling paddock at Brown’s Ancroft Stud in anticipation of the coming spring. “The intention was to give her a six-to- eight-week spell. We don’t believe in letting them get too fat,” Kelso said. “We will get her boxed up and then make a plan on what we will do in spring.” Options include the $10 million Golden Eagle at Rosehill or the $5 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. “Philip Brown has bred a Cox Plate winner (El Segundo), so he would love to win a Cox Plate,” Kelso said. “Whether she is a Cox Plate type of horse, I don’t know, but we’ve got so many options.” At times you think it , s getting tough but then you get a horse like Legarto or Levante , and you keep going.
Ken Kelso embraces jockey and fellow Kiwi, Michael Dee, after the incredible win.
complete with stables, at Matamata – about two hours south of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island. The pair are now in their mid-70s, employ between one and two full-time staff, and train a dozen horses at any one time. “It works because we both love horses,” Kelso said. “We are both hands-on. It is pretty hard to work together, too, at times, but we both complement each other. Bev’s got a very good eye for detail. “At times you think it’s getting tough but then you get a horse like Legarto or Levante, and you keep going.” The Kelsos have won 13 Group 1 races in New Zealand and now one in Australia. He insists there are no secrets to their success. “Let’s face it, training is not rocket science,” Kelso said down the phone from New Zealand. “I don’t care who it is – no one can make a slow one go faster. I think it’s attention to detail. Horsemanship, that’s all it is.” Legarto’s historic victory in the Australian
said: “I think it just has’. Obviously, we were referring to Levante. “So that was when we thought, ‘gee, this thing might be something special’. And, of course, her next start after that was at Riccarton when she won the Thousand Guineas, the Group 1.” The Kelsos were heavily involved in the show jumping scene during the 1970s and almost stumbled into training because of Bev’s success with a struggling, second-hand horse. At the time, Ken was working in the civil engineering department of a hydroelectric scheme, while Bev “pre-trained the odd racehorse”. “She got offered a horse to train that hadn’t done very well in the stable,” Kelso explained. “She didn’t have a license, so the owner said, ‘go and get one’. That horse won at its second start for Bev. In 1977.” Buoyed by the success, Ken Kelso obtained his training license 12 months later. In 1979 they bought their existing 10-acre property,
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INSIDE HEADQUARTERS ISSUE 2 2023
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