Embedded Files
Article by Chris Pitt
Alexander Patrick Kelly, better known as Lex Kelly, was born on April 4, 1928. A northern-based jump jockey who also rode occasionally on the Flat, he rode his first winner on a horse named Masco in a Sedgefield selling chase on February 26, 1949, then completed a double 90 minutes later by winning a handicap hurdle on Tyne.Masco went on to win the Ladies’ Cup Chase at Rothbury on April 30 and a hurdle race at Kelso three days later, giving Lex a score of four winners from 40 rides for that 1948/49 season.
Masco also got him off to a good start for the 1949/50 campaign by winning a chase at Wetherby on October 8, but there was to be only one more winner all season, on Village Victor on Sedgefield’s Boxing Day card.
Again, there were just two winners to show for 1950/51, both in selling hurdles, on Colbert at Catterick on November 4 and Broadmoor at Sedgefield on March 10. Broadmoor also provided Lex with the tenth winner of his career when scoring at Newcastle on October 29, 1951, resulting in his claim being reduced from 7lb to 5lb.
That 1951/52 season was numerically his best with five winners but the highlight was surely riding Cream of the Border in the 1952 Grand National. Unfortunately, their participation did not last long, with Cream of the Border being badly baulked at the third fence, the big open ditch, causing him to refuse.
Lex made a bright start to the 1952/53 season with three winners, all for Redcar trainer Harry Blackshaw, two being gained on the versatile Contraband over hurdles at Sedgefield and over fences at Catterick, the other being on two-mile chaser Binoranette at Carlisle. With three wins on the board by the start of November prospects were high for a good season but there were no more winners for the remainder that term.Four-year-old hurdler Gloster Blue provided Lex with three of his four winners in the 1953/54 campaign, scoring at Catterick, Kelso and Ayr, while Canny Lad was responsible for his only other winner, at Rothbury’s annual fixture in April. Both of Lex’s winners in 1954/55 were achieved on the same day, with Gloster Blue and Soonario obliging at Ayr on January 3, 1955.
The Jack Calvert-trained Soonario was to prove a good friend to Lex, giving him his first win on the Flat when landing a selling handicap at Catterick on April 11, 1955. He also provided him with two of his four winners in the 1955/56 season, winning handicap hurdles at Catterick in December and Wetherby in January. Then on April 2, 1956 Soonario gave Lex his second Flat victory when winning a mile-and-a-half handicap at Newcastle.
Lex doubled his score for the year when riding Jack Calvert’s Marula to victory in the 12-furlong Westmorland Handicap at Carlisle on July 6. Those three winners were his only ones on the Flat.
What had looked like being a winnerless jumps campaign in 1956/57 received a late boost when scoring twice on John Geoff at Sedgefield on May 18 and Hexham on June 8. But those two victories were to be his last for more than four years as Lex endured four blank seasons blighted by a succession of injuries.
He rode just one more winner, his 32nd in all, on Dick Curran’s Miss Tangle in a Market Rasen selling hurdle on September 23, 1961. He announced his retirement before the end of that season.
In his later years, Lex Kelly was one of the first residents at the Injured Jockeys Fund facility at Oaksey House in Lambourn.
He died in September 2010, aged 82.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse