Vale: Ken Wills & Les Turner

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Originally Posted by Amlin

Two prominent Victorian horsemen have passed away in recent days - Ken Wills and Les Turner, both names will be fondly remembered by many.

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Vale Ken Wills
The funeral service for Ken Wills will take place at Sacred Heart Cathedral, cnr High and Wattle Streets Bendigo at 10:30 am on Friday, January 13.

Well known and respected Bendigo harness racing trainer-driver Ken Wills passed away on Friday, January 6 aged 86.
Ken commenced working with horses after school with his father Les who trained gallopers and pacers from a property in Woodward Rd. Golden Square in Bendigo.
When only eighteen, Ken became foreman for leading Victorian thoroughbred trainer Jack Holt at Mordialloc, then for Stan Piper at Mentone. When Stan Piper sold his stables to Angus Armanasco, Ken returned to Bendigo, working gallopers for Wally Hyett, proprietor of the Bendigo Timber company, and the first president of the Bendigo Trotting Club. Hyett had some harness horses so Ken commenced to train those. His first winner as a trainer/driver was Placid Peter.
When 22, he moved to Barellan (NSW) to train for George Inglis and other owners including Len Walker. Standout horses were Star Hill who in 1958 won at Harold Park Sydney as a 10yo, not having won for 2 years, and Last Scott, a NZ bred son of U Scott that later sired winners.
Ken returned to Bendigo, and with his wife Elaine established a property in McIvor Rd, adjacent to Lord's Raceway named Star Hill Lodge from where he trained a string of high class horses including Perfect Hanover, [/B]Victorian Breeders Plate winner Pacing Scott and the dual Oaks winner Lynmont. Ken also trained gallopers including Jet Land.
Ken considered his best horse to be Star Hill. During an interview in 2016 he said:
“He was my first good horse…and like a pet dog would follow me anywhere”.

Ken’s last winning drive was on Farrazan at Ararat in December 1985.
Sons Laurie, Dennis and Brian and their families continue to be actively involved in the Harness Racing industry.

Among the high class pacers that Ken Wills trained and drove are:
Star Hill (Easter Handicap Sydney)
Last Scott (later sire of 68 winners)
Miracle Echo (The first Central Victorian Championship)
Pacing Scott (1961 Vic Breeders Plate)
Dale Spring (later sire of 165 winners)
Lynmont (dual Oaks winner)
Perfect Hanover (Maryborough Cup)
Bret Armagh (Heat WA Pacing Cup)
Shelley Paua, Jill’s Pet, Perfect Reveler and many more.

Below: Ken Wills and Bret Armagh after winning a heat of the 1983 WA PAcing Cup.

Les Turner, the last man to train a horse at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, passed away early on Sunday morning.

An accomplished horseman, and an Australian rodeo riding champion, Turner was based in the Ascot Vale area all of his life.

His working life association with the suburb, home to night trotting for almost 30 years, began when he started as a cattle drover at the nearby Newmarket Saleyards.

Here Turner met Jim Matthews - the pair would race several horses together over the years. Ironically, Matthews passed away fairly recently.

Turner is perhaps best remembered for horses the calibre of Adios Bear (1968 NSW and Victorian Trotters Derby and 1969 Australasian Trotters Championship), and Never Say Die (1969 Victorian Sapling Stakes and Leeton Breeders Plate and 1970 South Australian Sires Produce Stakes).

Other multiple winners included Rusty Thor, Memento (raced by champion footballer Des Tuddenham) and his last horse, Im The Navigator among countless others.

Turner briefly shifted his training operation to his daughter's property at Sunbury when they took out the trotting track at the Showgrounds as part of a redevelopment of the main arena a decade ago.

His last involvement with horses was swimming gallopers from the Lloyd Williams stable at Altona Beach, when well into his 70's.

A respected conditioner of horses who also broke in many exceptional types, and took great pride in the appearance of his team, Turner is survived by wife Val (nee Patten, another famous Melbourne trotting family) and daughters Gayle and Jo.