Kenyon Goode

Kenyon Goode

Amateur rider Kenyon Edward Minton Goode, popularly known as ‘Ken’, was born in Hampstead on 27 January 1901. His father was head of the family firm of Thomas Goode & Co, glass and china merchants, of South Audley Street. 

Educated at Harrow and Sandhurst, he was commissioned in the Indian Army in 1920, first attached o the Royal Scots and afterwards in Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides. He resigned in 1923 – being afterwards always known as ‘Captain Goode’ – and from 1924 onwards was an assistant trainer with Sam Bennet at Newmarket, Ben Roberts at Cheltenham, and Jack Scott at Letcombe Regis. 

As an amateur rider he had his first ride under National Hunt rules on Rock Iris in the Shirley Selling Handicap Chase at Shirley Park on 7 September 1925, finishing unplaced. It did not take him long to get off the mark, for just 15 days later, 22 September, he guided Turning Point, the 8-1 outsider of five, to victory in the Selling Handicap Chase at Pershore. 

He progressed quickly, riding what would prove a career-best total of ten winners during that 1925/26 season. He also had the first of his five Grand National mounts in 1926, aboard 100-1 outsider Soldier Bill, completing the course in 12th place. 

He finished fourth in the 1930 Valentine Chase on Rathvale and rode in four consecutive Grand Nationals, steering 200-1 shot Camperdown to get round last of the ten finishers after remounting in 1929; falling on 100-1 outsider Ibstock in 1930; completing the course last of twelve finishers on 50-1 chance Harewood in 1931; and falling at Becher’s first time round on his final attempt on 100-1 longshot Redlynch in 1932. 

His career highlights included a hat-trick on the second day of Torquay’s Easter meeting, 7 April 1931, winning the Babbacombe Selling Handicap Chase on Sheriff, the Torre Handicap Hurdle on Swashbuckler, and the Torbay and South Devon Handicap Chase on Ibstock. 

Ibstock, whom he also owned, was among the best he rode. He won five races on him: at Taunton and Monmouth in 1930, at Torquay and Taunton in 1931, and at Hurst Park in 1932. That Hurst Park victory, in the Riverside Selling Chase on 4 March 1932, was the last of Ken’s career. Ibstock was also his final mount in public when pulling up in the Pavilion Selling Handicap Chase at Sandown Park on 23 April 1932. 

He had ridden a total of 31 winners over jumps and took part in five Grand Nationals, completing the course in three of them. He never held a licence under Jockey Club rules and only ever once rode in a Flat race. 

In 1930 he had bought The Old Manor at Upper Lambourn and began to convert it into a racing stable. Initially he just trained his own horses but in February 1935 he took out a public National Hunt trainer’s licence. His string numbered 13 by 1937.

He was recalled to the Army in 1939 as a 2nd Lieutenant and served in North Africa and Sicily as a Captain (promoted in December 1940) in the Grenadier Guards. Demobilized in the summer of 1945, he resumed training at The Old Manor up to 1947. Later, at the invitation of Lord Carnarvon, he was in charge of the Hobby Horse Hall racecourse at Nassau and remained in that part of the world afterwards. 

He was the author of three published books, a novel, a cookery book, and an autobiography ‘How Very English’, published in 1964, which, regrettably, effectively ends in 1945. 

Information sourced from ‘A Biographical Dictionary of Racehorse Trainers in Berkshire 1850-1939’ by David Boyd, published in 1998.