Article by Chris Pitt
National Hunt jockey Kenneth John Begley was born on September 27, 1943. He was apprenticed to Vincent O’Brien and rode two winners in his native Ireland before joining David Barons’ Kingsbridge, Devon stable in 1965.
He rode five winners during that first (1965/66) season and doubled his score to ten the next. With David Barons being just about the foremost West Country trainer, it was no surprise that Ken got off to a good start at those early season south-west fixtures, rattling up four wins on Barons’ handicap hurdler Lumin Fair in August/September 1966.
The following season, 1967/68, Ken rode 18 winners. Again, there was an early start down in the south-west, with selling hurdler Military Man getting him off the mark for the season at Newton Abbot on August Bank Holiday Monday and following up at Devon & Exeter the next week.
That 1967/68 campaign was interrupted by the devastating foot and mouth epidemic, which saw all British horseracing cancelled from late November to early January.
Nobody was more grateful for the sport’s return than Ken Begley, who rode the winner of the first race following its resumption on the Les Kennard-trained Eastern Delight at Sandown at January 5, 1968.
Ken was by now riding permanently for Les Kennard who, alongside David Barons, was the other ‘top dog’ in the south-west. He trained the two best horses Ken rode, namely handicap hurdler Tapina, on whom he won at Plumpton on January 17 and Fontwell on May 2; and handicap chaser Roddie B, who provided him with the first leg of an Easter Monday double at Newton Abbot and won again at Devon & Exeter on May 4. Another decent Kennard-trained performer was Appellant, twice successful for Ken that season at Plumpton and Devon & Exeter.
What happened after that is hard to say, although his career may have been compromised by injury. He began the next season with an early victory on novice hurdler Clever Caroline at Devon & Exeter on August 7, 1968, for Newton Abbot-based trainer Billy Williams, but that was to be his sole success from 85 mounts that term. He continued to hold a licence until 1971 but rode no more winners. His last ride was on Strength Of Mind, pulled up in the Summer Handicap Hurdle (Division 1) at Stratford on June 5, 1971.
After retiring from race-riding, he ran the Hillside Stud in Lambourn, where he would break horses for Dick Hern. The Queen was a regular visitor to the stud to check up on the progress of her young horses.
Ken Begley was killed in a traffic accident near his home in Lincolnshire on June 24, 2004, aged 61. He died from internal haemorrhaging after a car he was travelling in as a back-seat passenger left the road and turned over, ending up in a dyke.
He left a wife, Kim, and three children from his first marriage, to Marion – Alison, William and Patrick.
