NEWS
Kelso’s exercise rider Jenkins dies
Posted: Wednesday, June 16, 2010 6:19 PM
by Ed DeRosa
Nolan Richard “Dick” Jenkins, the regular exercise rider of five-time Horse of the Year Kelso who later went on to work as an assistant stallion manager at Gainesway, died Tuesday at age 76.
Jenkins worked for Allaire DuPont for 22 years and was around many good horses but none as great as the mighty Kelso, whom he helped introduce to the races by breaking him as a two-year-old in 1959. He exercised the Your Host gelding throughout his eight-year career that included 31 stakes wins and seven track records.
Jenkins served the United States Army as a tank driver and pursued a jockey career when he returned to civilian life, a path that eventually led him to DuPont’s operation.
Jenkins spent his final years operating Glenbrook Farm, a transportation and boarding operation in Florida near his native Jacksonville. Jenkins sold the transportation portion of the business but retained the name Glenbrook for an online herb and tea store he and his wife operated from their Campbellsville, Kentucky, home.
His wife of 28 years, Lucinda Jenkins, as well as six children, four grandchildren, and a sister survives Jenkins. His brother, Jack Davenport, preceded him in death.
Ed DeRosa is news editor of Thoroughbred Times
READER COMMENTS
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Posted by: Charlotte Farmer, Redding, CA on June 17, 2010 at 04:54 PM
I am so saddened at hearing the news of Mr. Jenkins death. During the 1960’s, and until Kelly’s death, I still continued to search for information; this was before the days of computers, regarding what Mrs. Allaire du Pont referred to as, “The Team.” The Team comprised of Kelso, Mrs. du Pont, and Carl Hanford, Kelly’s trainer, his jockey Milo Valenzuela, and Dick Jenkins. When Milo died, last September, I was invited to the funeral. For me it seemed as if it were yesterday when Kelso was burning up the tracks with Milo aboard and Mrs. du Pont waiting for him in the winner’s circle. Kelso could not have had a finer group of human beings surround him. The “Team” is almost complete. Carl Hanford is still with us and I hope for a while longer, but they wait, on the other side, for the final member and then once again Kelso will burn up the tracks of heaven.
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