Patrick Kellary
Flat jockey Patrick Kellary was born on March 8, 1936. He served his apprenticeship with Tom Masson at Lewes from 1952 to 1954 and then with Harry Hannon between 1954 and 1957.
He rode his first winner on Masson’s four-year-old filly Blue Petrel in an apprentices’ race at Lewes on September 1, 1953. He had just one more, in 1955, before coming out of his time in 1957.
From then on he rode as a fully-fledged jockey and enjoyed easily his most successful year in 1959 with five winners. Having relocated to Scotland and been employed as second jockey to John Clark, who trained at Clyde House, Ayr, Pat started the season well by notching a double on selling plater Pride of Moorlands and two-year-old Balsarroch Boy at Edinburgh on April 20. He then won a Lanark seller on Black Ink on May 4, before gaining a second victory on Balsarroch Boy, this time at Newcastle on July 11, to be followed by a third success on that horse at Stockton on August 14.
Pat later nominated the front-running Balsarroch Boy, who made all when winning at Newcastle and Stockton, as the best he rode, but sadly he did not run again after his juvenile campaign.
Nonetheless, Pat had high hopes for the 1960 season and it got off to the perfect start when his first ride of the year, 5-4 favourite Wotanorse, obliged at Ayr on Saturday, April 2. But that would be as good as it got, not just his only winner of the season but the last of his career.
He relinquished his licence in July the following year, and although he resumed riding in 1962 and continued until 1965, he did not ride another winner in Britain.
He had stated in the 1961 edition of the Directory of the Turf that his ambition was “one day, to ride in Hong Kong, a wish I have had from the age of sixteen.” It is not known whether he achieved that ambition. Hong Kong was, in those days, an almost amateur sport compared with the multi-billion pound industry of today, being long before Sha Tin racecourse was constructed on land reclaimed from the sea.