Warrnambool’s greyhound racing community lost one of its favourite sons recently through the passing of Alan ‘Mick’ Kelly (pictured).
There was a time when Mick and younger brother Colin Kelly were a force to be reckoned with on the greyhound racing circuit, as they teamed to put the polish on a number of top class greyhounds.
Their greatest successes included training the 1983 Melbourne Cup winner, Lady Lilly and the 1986 Adelaide Cup & Perth Cup winner, Farquhar.
“Lady Lilly also won the Warrnambool Cup and Ballarat Cup and was a once in a lifetime greyhound,” Colin Kelly said. “We also trained another Warrnambool Cup winner in Larrikin Lewis, and many other very good greyhounds including Darkness, Bill’s Reject and Shauna’s Delight.”
“We were fortunate enough to have a lot of success. We did a lot of travelling and Mick was the driver. We’d go to the track and also to take our dogs to Ned Bryant and Dr. Alex Hauler, who were the best in the business when it came to checking over greyhounds for injuries and soreness. Both those guys are in the (GRV) Hall of Fame, and rightly so.”
Matt Ansell, General Manager of the Warrnambool GRC said Mick would be sadly missed around the club.
“Mick was a great friend and mentor to me in the greyhound industry. He always had an opinion and an extremely dry wit to go with it.”
“He spent many years on the (Warrnambool GRC) committee, was a life member of the club, helped shape the culture of the club and was always a great supporter of what we do in Warrnambool,” Ansell said.
Alan James ‘Mick’ Kelly
18.09.1937 – 31.10.2015