Barney's Blog

Kenny Happy Returns!

Morning all, Barney McGrew here again, trotting out another brilliant blog for your delight and delectation.

Well folks, today is a momentous day. A historic day. A day of celebration. Yes, the Kenny Williams human, our Travelling Head Lad, is celebrating his 70th birthday - and I know he only looks 50.

I get accused of taking the mickey out of Kenny too much in these blogs - that Lauren Mulholland is always having at go at me for picking on him - but it's time to pay proper tribute to a human who's a massive part of the yard, and to stop making him the butt of my jokes.

So, here goes...What a career Kenny's had. He started out in 1970 for George Noel Robinson before moving to Ken Payne as his apprentice at Kingsley House in Middleham.

He then became apprentice to Bill Watts before trying his hand over jumps with Basil Richmond. He went back to Bill Watts and has great memories of riding the Arlington Million winner Teleprompter in his work.

In total, Kenny had ten winners on the flat and ten over jumps, and also worked for Jack and Linda Ramsden and Alan Swinbank before taking up his travelling head lad role with The Gaffer here at Denton Hall in 2013.

Well, I'm delighted to report that Kenny's great career has been recognised with him being nominated for his dedication to racing in the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards, sponsored by Godolphin. And the big news is that he’s made it into the final 10. The Awards ceremony will be held at York Racecourse on Monday 24 February 2025 – so fingers crossed for Kenny.

In the meantime, everyone here at Denton Hall wants to wish him a happy birthday, and The Gaffer has made it clear to anyone who'll listen that he's got at least another ten years of hard graft in him.

I was thinking about it, and me and Kenny actually have a lot in common:

• We're both a bit long in the tooth but look a lot younger.
• We know more about racing than the rest of this motley crew here at Denton put together.
• We've both covered a lot of miles in horse-boxes in our time
• Neither of us suffer fools gladly.
• And I'm guessing the odds are we're both geldings.

Anyway, the Gaffer's presented Kenny with a voucher so he can take his missus out for a nice meal. The Michael human's a tight bugger, so it's probably for McDonald's, but it's the thought that counts.

I was wondering what I could do to mark Kenny's big birthday and I've decided to write him a poem:

There once was a Travelling Head Lad,
The best Michael Dods ever had,
But with sitting for miles,
Poor old Kenny got piles,
And they ended up driving him mad.

Though a crucial part of the team,
The pain Kenny felt was extreme.
One day, heading to Ayr,
The horses never got there,
Cos he stopped at the shop for some cream.

But Kenny we all want to say,
You're a star in every possible way,
From York to Ffos Las,
You are simply top class,
And we wish you a wonderful day.

MOVING on to other matters, I need to say a big congratulations to my old mate, Northern Express, on winning this year's Top Dog Award.

It's an honour that's dished out by the stable at the end of every season to the horse that's been the outstanding star performer.

Northy - as I like to call him - won it this year for his epic victory under that nice Paul Mulrennan human in the very valuable Moet & Chandon  International Stakes at Ascot.

While I'm delighted for Northy, what I can't work out is why the humans called it the Top Dog trophy. They even present the winner with an ornamental dog for goodness sake!

Everyone knows dogs are inferior creatures that just bark a lot for no reason. If you're going to present an award for the top horse, why not called it the Top Horse trophy?

Honestly, I'll never understand humans as long as I live.

TALKING of my old human pal, Paul Mulrennan, I want to say a big well done to him on being presented with a Milestone Award at the Go Racing In Yorkshire annual lunch this week.

Paul received the award for reaching 1,500 career wins and it's well deserved. Not only is he a bloody good jockey, he's a nice fella too. Proper gent.

By the way, among those 1,500 wins, I bet his highlights were the two victories he had on me. Forget those Group 1 Nunthorpes on Mecca's Angel, the big ones for Paul were when we got together to win the Bet & Watch With Racing UK's App Handicap at Ayr in 2013, and the ABF The Soldiers' Charity Selling Stakes at Thirsk in 2015. I was getting on a bit by then and that was my last win.

Anyway, well done Paul. What a career - I'm dead proud of ya!

Finally, back to the birthday boy...

I hear that Kenny was taking the empty horsebox for its MOT the other day and he passed a broken down wagon, so he stopped to see if he could help.

"Where are you trying to get to?" Kenny asked the lorry driver.

"I've got a zebra and a camel in the back - I'm taking them to Flamingoland Zoo," the exasperated driver explained.

Being a big-hearted fella, and experienced with animals, Kenny immediately offered to take the zebra and camel onto their destination.

On his way back from the zoo, Kenny again passed the broken-down lorry, so he pulled over.

"Did you manage to take the zebra and camel to the zoo?" asked the driver who was still waiting for the AA.

"Aye, they had a great time" replied Kenny. "We're off to the pictures now."

WELL folks, that's your lot for another blog. Bring carrots in time for Christmas. Lots of love,