THE name Kelso has been synonymous with classic racehorses for many years and their success rate is one any trainer would be proud of

KEN and BEV KELSO have experienced a remarkable big-race record as one of the industry's quiet achievers. They're super detail-oriented and also hands-on trainers, which is why they preferred a small stable with 16 boxes in total. Beverly, alongside her husband Ken, was an integral part of one of the nation's most esteemed training partnerships, with the Matamata-based couple achieving a strike rate with fillies and mares that is widely admired.

Bev was a very good equestrian rider in her own right and competed in Australia and New Zealand and they met through a shared love of showjumping. The Kelso's have trained in partnership since 1978, with Bev Kelso actually getting her licence before Ken Kelso, even though he has been the more public face of their stable. The duo were showjumping horses together back in 1977 when Bev qot asked to pre-train a couple of horses and eventually she got her license first and trained a winner. Bev started training in Tauranga, and her first winner was FORTUNE'S FANCY in the 1977-78 season in a 1600m Highweight at Matamata ridden by Lance Douglas. The couple moved over the Kaimai's and and set up shop in Matamata. Ken commuted back and forth to Tauranga, where he was a civil engineer.

Soon Ken and Bev moved to Matamata after buying Terry Alcock's stables in Banks Rd. Some of their earlier winners were BOLD FRIPON in the 1981 Marton Cup ridden by Bruce Compton following a 3rd in the Wellington Derby. He was passed on from Kevin old when he moved to Victoria. ZAMABOY (Zamazaan) in the 1990 Cornwall Handicap ridden by Baz Dowling and the 1990 Taumaranui Cup ridden by Peter Johnson. LOVE DANCE (Kapstaad) winner of the 1995 Avondale Cup and 1996 Kelt Capital ridden by Gary Grylls. ENVOY (Personal Escort) winner of the 2006 Wellington Cup ridden by Grant Cooksley and an honourable 7th in MAKYBE DIVA's 2005 Melbourne Cup. AMLOCH wasn't a bad one, winning a Queen Elizabeth Handicap, Avondale Classic and Governor General Cup and DOWN THE ROAD won a Championship Stakes and finished second in a New Zealand Derby.

Bev designed her and Ken's distinctive colours and they were never intimated in taking their horses to Australia from early on to compete against the very best. The Kelso's preferred to operate a boutique-sized stable, and their methods have produced plenty of success over the last five decades. Their roll of honour with elite gallopers includes Group One winners XANADU, BOUNDING, LOVE DANCE, PERFECT FIT, ENVOY, LEVANTE, LEGARTO and ALABAMA LASS.

LEVANTE and LEGARTO have been their best performers on the track, and they have both carried the famous tan and brown silks of Ancroft Stud’s Philip and Catherine Brown. The first horse the Brown's gave Bev and Ken was Levante, and they won four Group One races with the speedy horse. Then there was Legarto, who won five Group Ones. They also have another two Proisir fillies, LEVAKIA and LEVARTI, with them.

BOUNDING (Lonhro) was a three-year-old filly when ridden to victory by Mark Du Plessis in the Gr.1 Railway Handicap at Ellerslie in 2014. The win came as a redemption arc after she finished a close second in the Gr.1 New Zealand 1000 Guineas earlier that season. She achieved 8 wins and 7 placings from 19 starts, earning over $650,000 in total prize money.

XANADU (Elusive City) delivered one of the most powerful first to last victories in winning the 2008 Gr.1 Breeders Stakes at Te Aroha and she did it with great ease. She also won the Gr.1 Windsor Park Plate defeating MUFHASA. FIX (Iffraaj) was another exceptional racemare who won the Gr.2 Eight Carat, Royal Stakes and Sir Tristram Fillies Classic in succession, was 2nd in the 2013 NZ Derby and placed multiple times in black-type events. PERFECT FIT also won a Gr.1 Breeders and Gr.2 Westbury Classic and was close up in a Telegraph and Railway.

From a Kiwi stable of just a dozen horses, the dynamic duo produced the 2023 Australian Guineas winner, Legarto, making history as the first New Zealand-trained horse to take out the top honours. “You won’t beat JACQUINOT in the Australian Guineas” the naysayers and so-called experts said. But Kelso thought otherwise. The no nonsense, straight-shooting Kiwi trainer was quietly confident his horse could prove them wrong.

They had seen the Proisir filly do things at home that no other horse had done in their 45-year training partnership. She could finish a race like a runaway train. LEGARTO was purchased for $90,000 from breeder Warwick Jefferies at the 2021 National Yearling Sale. After winning the Gr.1 New Zealand Guineas and Gr.2 Eight Carat Classic in the first half of her three-year-old season, the horse known as "Lulu" around the stable would head across the Tasman and deliver a sublime performance to claim the Gr.1 Australian Guineas at Flemington. The mare would then notch up her third Group 1 with victory in the Herbie Dyke in February 2024.

It was an incredible training feat to get Legarto to win the Matamata Cup fresh up in February 2025 after 11 months away from the track and her last two career runs are highly memorable. Legarto would lay down a brilliant performance and looked in amazing condition when claiming the Gr.1 Herbie Dyke for the second time at Te Rapa, followed by a stunning late burst with Opie Bosson aboard to win the Gr.1 Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie on Champion Day in March 2026. Following Legarto’s success last season, she was crowned Horse of the Year at the Matamata Racing Awards.

ALABAMA LASS returned from a break to win the Gr.2 Foxbridge Plate at Te Rapa and the exciting sprint machine has already proved her worth for the Kelso's. She won the Gr.3 Gold Trail and Gr.2 Soliloquy as a three-year-old and 2nd in the Gr.1 Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley in the spring of 2025. The one thing you always noticed with a Kelso horse is how well-prepared they were and immaculately presented in exquisite condition, and that was no different at Te Rapa with ALABAMA LASS.

Bev, with her illness, wasn’t strong enough to get about and do a lot of the things that she wanted to do, but she was always giving Ken sound advice to the very last day. Unfortunately, Bev couldn’t be trackside for Legarto’s last couple of Group One victories or for Alabama Lass returning at Te Rapa, but Ken was always straight on the phone after each race to celebrate with his wife. Bev Kelso passed away in Waikato Hospital on Saturday morning August 27, after struggling with illness for much of the last year. She was 80.