Ken Holmes

1931 - 2019

By Chris Pitt

(Much of the following information and text has been supplied by Moira Emmett, to whom I express my sincere thanks.)

Yorkshireman Ken Holmes won the Derby a record ten times. No, not the one at Epsom, nor at the Curragh. This is the Kiplingcotes version, a far more demanding test of horse and rider than the mile-and-a-half gallop faced by three-year-olds in Surrey or Kildare.

Originally called the Kiplingcotes Plate and dating back to 1519, the four-mile Kiplingcotes Derby is England’s oldest horse race, predating its more famous Epsom counterpart by 261 years.

Always run on the third Thursday of March, the is marked by a stone post in the parish of Etton, close to the old Kiplingcotes railway station. On their way to the finish, the runners cross two country lanes, a 12-foot wide bridge over the disused railway line, and the A163 Market Weighton to Driffield road (protected by police for the duration of the race) before finishing down a quarter-mile strip of grass verge adjacent to Londesborough Wold Farm. The winning post is a white signpost donated by a local secondary school.

Ken was born in the village of Langton, near Malton, on September 28, 1931, the second son of Herbert and Molly Holmes. He was one of ten children, having six brothers and three sisters. He grew up in a cottage at Whitewall in Norton, attending the local primary school. He was interested in horses from an early age. He would wait for the head lad from the William Bellerby’s stables at Whitewall to return from the gallops and ask to be put up on his horse to ride back to the yard.

Ken left school just before he reached the age of 14 and started his working life in 1945 with trainer Jos Hollowell at Wold House, Norton, Malton. He subsequently joined Bellerby’s Whitewall Stables. Bellerby is perhaps best remembered as the owner-trainer of King Of Clubs, the 100-1 Lincolnshire Handicap winner of 1926, whose name, along with eleven other Lincoln winners of that era, was immortalised in the Totopoly board game.

Ken rode as an apprentice on the Flat, had a few placed efforts but no winners. He did better as a boxer, and as a teenager was Britain’s stable lads’ boxing champion in his weight division.

From Malton, Ken headed south to Joe Lawson at Newmarket. There he partnered a pair of high-class horses on the gallops, namely Fighter Command, whose five victories in 1948 included the Liverpool Summer Cup, and the sprinter Combined Operations, who that same year won the Diadem Stakes, followed by Newmarket’s Challenge Stakes in 1949.

Leaving Lawson just before the arrival of Derby winner Never Say Die, Ken returned to Malton, joining Captain Charles Elsey. There he looked after the top juvenile Eubilides, whose four consecutive wins in 1954 included Goodwood’s Richmond Stakes and Royal Ascot’s Chesham Stakes, where he handed out a four-length beating to the future 1,000 Guineas winner Our Babu. After a successful juvenile career, Eubilides was sold and sent to race in America, where he eventually retired to stud.

He married Sunday school teacher Kathleen and they went on to enjoy a happy life together, raising eight children.

A two-year stint with Joe Thwaites, also at Malton, was followed by a second move south, this time to the private trainer J. W. Weston Evans at Herringswell Manor, Tudenham, in Suffolk. Among the horses he broke in was Prince Tudor, runner-up behind 66-1 outsider Rockavon in the 1961 2,000 Guineas.

From there Ken moved to Royston, spending two years with Willie Stephenson. Stephenson’s Grand National winner Oxo was still in the yard, while former triple Champion Hurdle hero Sir Ken was the trainer’s hack. There Ken broke in the subsequent National Hunt Chase winner Time and 1962 City and Suburban Handicap winner Eastern Nip.

Shortly after that, Ken left the world of racing. However, he kept his hand in educating young horses, his most acclaimed graduate being the 1978 Grand National winner Lucius, broken in by Ken when a three-year-old.

For a few years, he was employed selling veterinary products to farmers, becoming well-known within the farming community. During this time, he continued his interest in horses and, in addition to breaking them in, he taught people to ride. Sadly, his marriage did not survive, and he and Kathleen went their separate ways in 1986.

By then, Ken was becoming a force to be reckoned with in the Kiplingcotes Derby. He first took part in the race in 1982. He enjoyed the experience so much that he returned the following year to win it riding Onward Again. The partnership won the race again in 1984. Ken won it for a third time in 1986, this time aboard Llacabac. He finished second on Qualitair Boy in 1987 but scored a fourth success on Paddy From Wales in 1989.

In 1990 he was introduced to Moira Emmett by one of his farming customers. By now Ken had taken up equine dentistry, and, recognizing Moira’s affinity with horses, asked her to be his assistant. They soon became a partnership in more than just business.

During the 1990s Ken exerted a Piggott-like dominance over the Kiplingcotes Derby, winning it four times running on Moira’s horse Tulum who was by the 1969 Derby winner Blakeney. Ken and Tulum won it for the first time in 1992, returning twelve months later to come home a furlong clear of his nearest pursuer, the former Malcolm Jefferson novice hurdler Distinctly Brave.

Legend had it that no rider had won the race more than six times in its 450-plus-year history. But records are made to be broken and, in 1994, Ken and Tulum triumphed for a third time, winning by some 200 yards from Jim King on his hunter Cherry. “That must be the fastest hunter in England,” reflected Ken after the race. “He led me by 20 lengths at one stage and I only took it up at the bottom of the final hill. I think that hunter must be Tulyar reincarnated!”

Tulum and Ken triumphed for a fourth time in 1995, meaning Ken had won eight of the last 13 renewals of England’s oldest horse race. Nor was he finished – not by a long way. He won his ninth Derby on Snowfire Chap in 1998 and finished second on him in the next two runnings.

The race was not run in 2001 due to the foot and mouth restrictions, hence local farmer Stephen Crawford walked his horse Memorable over the course to perpetuate the race. (Legend has it that if the race ever lapses for one year, the local farmer can withdraw the right for it to be run over his land. Nobody knows for sure whether that’s true – they’ve never risked it.)

Ken won his tenth Kiplingcotes Derby in 2002 aboard Monty. He finished second on Monty the following year and was runner-up again in 2004, this time on Royal Citizen. He finished third on Royal Citizen in 2005 and third again on Monty in 2006. By then aged 74, he announced that that was his last ride in the race and he was hanging up his boots.

During his time in racing, Ken had travelled to racecourses all over the country, from Ascot to Perth. His inimitable style, warmth and readiness to tell a joke – and make people laugh and feel comfortable in his company – endeared him to people. His intimate knowledge of the horse enabled him to give sound advice and assistance to all who sought his help.

Ken may no longer have been riding in the Kiplingcotes Derby but he and Moira were not lost to the occasion. Not at all. They turned up every year on the third Thursday in March to join the hundreds gathered along the narrow road that formed the finishing straight. Their post-race picnic supplied from the boot of their car, without which no Derby Day would have been complete, was an essential rendezvous for their many friends. Ken and Moira’s shared interests gave them the happiest of relationships for almost 30 years.

Ken Holmes passed away on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, aged 87. His funeral took place at St Peter’s Church, Norton on April 30. He was a true Yorkshireman and countryman.

Rest in peace, King of Kiplingcotes.