LYGETON LAD

LAD GIVES KELLEWAY A SPRING IN HER STEP

Courtesy of The Daily Echo in Dorset

From the Echo, first published Tuesday 18th Mar 2003.

LYGETON LAD, the bargain buy who has helped to put former Dorset trainer Gay Kelleway back into the headlines, has topped the poll among Racing Post readers as the All-Weather Horse of the Year.

Right on cue, the five-year-old landed his fifth win of the winter at Lingfield on Saturday, just hours before the coveted trophy was handed to an ecstatic Kelleway at the awards ceremony organised by Arena Leisure,

owners of Britain's three all-weather tracks.

The prize was already in the bag when Lygeton Lad, bought by Kelleway's brother Tony for a mere 1,000gns as a yearling and part-owned by her sister Sarah, scooped a £20,000 handicap to take his total earnings to £54,601.

"He's fantastic, and is the reason I get up at 4.30 every morning," said Newmarket-based Kelleway, who used to operate at Whitcombe Manor Racing Stables near Dorchester.

"He's a bit of a character, so I take him to work on the heath away from other horses."

Kelleway is back at Charnwood stables in Hamilton Road, where she first started training, after a roller-coaster spell that took her to Whitcombe, Seavington near Bridport, Lingfield and Dubai.

"I'm back, in every sense," she said, "but it hasn't been easy, especially since my father Paul died. "I can do the job, but there were times when I doubted myself and felt like packing in. "In the end it was my mother who persuaded me to carry on, and with the help of some fantastic owners, such as Tony Griffin and Chris and Andrea Wilkinson, and excellent staff, the hard work is paying off."

Kelleway ran just 16 horses during the winter all-weather season, and clocked 19 wins and 31 placings for total earnings of £134,806, to finish third in the money-winning table behind Nick Littmoden and David Barron.