Ipswich pays tribute to Kelso Wood

Date: 05-Sep-2018

Ipswich Turf Club has paid tribute to former Ipswich Cup winner Kelso Wood who died this week after a long battle with illness.

The Group 1 winning trainer won the Ipswich Cup in 2002 with Awesome Weather when Arron Kennedy carried 53kg to win by a short neck.

Wood officially retired from training after winning the 2150m Maiden Plate at the Club’s CFMEU Labour Day meeting with his training partner Patricia Gesler accepting the trophy. Larry Cassidy rode Delago Edition to win the race for Wood and Gesler.

At the age of 14, Wood started his jockey apprenticeship with trainer Athol Strong later moving to Sydney to complete his training with Harry Plant. After 12 months increasing weight forced him to retire from the saddle.

Wood considered walking away from racing, taking a three-month break driving taxis in Brisbane but he reignited his riding career out west. It wasn’t long before he headed back to Sydney to join Plant as stable foreman, a job he had previously held for a short time. By the 1980s he returned to his home town of Brisbane to take out a license of his own.

His career spanned 60 years in racing and includes the 1993 Doomben 10,000 winner Unequalled, the 2012 TJ Smith (now JJ Atkins) with Sizzling and the 2013 Magic Millions 2YO Classic with Real Surreal. Two years later Real Surreal claimed the Listed Gai Waterhouse Classic at Ipswich with Michael Cahill in the saddle.

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