Classic-winning owner Bill Kettlewell dies aged 87

Classic-winning owner and Ferdy Murphy's former landlord Bill Kettlewell has died after a battle with prostate cancer. He was 87.

Kettlewell, a well-known figure in Middleham, bought 1977 1,000 Guineas winner Mrs McArdy as a present for his wife Edith – with whom he ran a motel in Wensleydale.

Trained by Mick Easterby and ridden by Edward Hide, she won the Classic by two lengths and while she did not stay in the Oaks, she later added the Fen Ditton and Strensall Stakes before being sold to race in America for a then-record 154,000 guineas at the Tattersalls December horses-in-training sale.

Murphy, one of the most successful jumps trainers of the last 40 years with 12 Cheltenham Festival winners to his credit, trained from Kettlewell's Wynbury Stables in West Witton from early 1997 until he moved to France in 2013.

Murphy saddled eight festival winners from Kettlewell's yard, starting with French Holly's 1998 Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle and culminating with Divers landing the 2011 Centenary Novices' Chase. He also sent out an Irish Grand National and three Scottish Grand National winners from Wynbury.

Ferdy Murphy: trained from Bill Kettlewell's yardCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Kettlewell, who died last Monday, is survived by his three children, Stephen, Julie and Linda, and his wife Edith, who said: "We were always in racing, we had a Guineas winner and when Ferdy was having to leave Middleham, he offered him our stables and he was very successful there.

"I think he said we had about 35 winners over the years – we had a few horses we bred. We're up in the Dales so it'd be nice to let the racing fraternity know."

Easterby recalled: "He was a perfect gentleman, a perfect racehorse owner and we did really well together. She gave us our only Classic which was a very special day."

There will be a funeral service at St Bartholomew's Church in West Witton at 1pm on December 3.

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