Kenneth Bruce Vardy was born near Newcastle-on-Tyne in May, 1947. His parents had no connection with racing and he had never sat on a horse until joining trainer Jack Ormston as an apprentice, but in his schooldays he had always dreamed of becoming a jockey.
He rode his first winner when aged 17 on Ormston’s colt Royal Report in a Hamilton Park apprentice’s handicap on July 17, 1964. However, by far the best-known horse with which he was associated was Ormston’s grand old campaigner Le Garcon d’Or, who provided him with eight of his 15 career victories.
Ken rode five/six-furlong sprinter Le Garcon d’Or on 21 occasions altogether between 1964 and 1969, winning eight times – making all the running on each occasion – and finishing second three times, including when just beaten by a good sprinter named Roughlin in the 1965 Gosforth Park Cup. Ken’s first two wins on Le Garcon d’Or came in the summer of 1965, during which he also won on Jack Ormston’s Battle In at Ayr and Jimmy Thompson’s Quoff in a \Hamilton Park apprentice’s race. He also won a Redcar maiden and a Haydock nursery on Ormston’s two-year-old Grey Streak to give him a total of six winners for the year.
Le Garcon d’Or supplied two of Ken’s three wins in 1966. Having failed to score in 1967, he then won three times on Le Garcon d’Or in 1968, finishing that season with an ‘outside’ winner on Bill Elsey’s Brother Scot in a York apprentice’s contest.
Appropriately, Le Garcon d’Or provided Ken with his final winner on the last occasion he rode him in a race, winning the Driffield All-Aged Selling Stakes at Beverley on September 24, 1969. Ken completed his apprenticeship at the end of that year. He rode for one full season as a professional jockey without success, eventually relinquishing his licence in July 1971.
Le Garcon d’Or was a grand schoolmaster for several young apprentices such as Ken Vardy. He won his last race, the Joppa Selling Stakes at Edinburgh, when aged 14 and was still running well as a 15-year-old. On his final start, at Newcastle on August 14, 1973, he was partnered by Britain’s oldest jockey, 57-year-old Alec Russell, meaning their combined ages totalled 72 years!
Ken Vardy’s winners were, in chronological order
1. Royal Report, Hamilton Park, July 17, 1964
2. Le Garcon d’Or, Newcastle, June 2, 1965
3. Le Garcon d’Or, Carlisle, July 2, 1965
4. Quoff, Hamilton Park, July 16, 1965
5. Bustle In, Ayr, July 19, 1965
6. Grey Streak, Redcar, August 6, 1965
7. Grey Streak, Haydock Park, September 18, 1965
8. Footsteps, Doncaster, June 25, 1966
9. Le Garcon d’Or, Ayr, July 18, 1966
10. Le Garcon d’Or, Thirsk, September 17, 1966
11. Le Garcon d’Or, Edinburgh, July 1, 1968
12. Le Garcon d’Or, Newcastle, August 31, 1968
13. Le Garcon d’Or, Beverley, September 26, 1968
14. Brother Scot, York, October 9, 1968
15. Le Garcon d’Or, Beverley, September 24, 1969