Joe Kelly
The Dean of Maryland Turf Writers 2012 Maryland Horseman of the Year
and the On Saturday, February 16, 2013, the Maryland equestrian community will gather to honor Joe Kelly, the “Dean
of Maryland Turf Writers,” as the 2012 Maryland Horseman of the Year. Unfortunately, Mr. Kelly unexpectedly passed away while plans were being fi nalized for the commemorative dinner, but the organizer, the Maryland Horse Council, is fortunate that several of Mr. Kelly’s children will attend, with son Jacques accepting the honor on behalf of his father. Mr. Kelly would have celebrated his 95th birthday on Feb. 13, 2013. Each year the Maryland Horse Council honors one state resident with the distinction of Horseman of the Year. T e
intention of the honor is to highlight that the Maryland horse industry is – indeed – an industry: a dynamic ecosystem in which dedicated individuals actually strive to earn a living while being in, around and among horses and horse people. T us the award is presented each year to someone who has had a long and outstanding career in the industry. Everyone knows about the champion horses, the Olympic riders, the dedicated owners and the philanthropists. T ey are in the headlines, on the front covers and the featured speakers at every seminar or event. T is award, however, recognizes the everyday horseman working behind the scenes to keep the wheels of this industry
lubricated and turning. Over the last two decades, the Maryland Horse Council has saluted veterinarians, farriers, tack store owners, riding instructors, trainers of Walking Horses and steeplechase horses, professional riders…a variety
of individuals who not only enjoyed a long and successful career in their chosen professions, but who also inspired, mentored or nurtured the next generation of professionals. Some have been hands-on with horses, and others have not been hands-on. Regardless, each was an icon in his or her chosen profession and each left an indelible mark on his or her segment of the industry. Joe Kelly, a.k.a. “Mr. Kelly,” was one of those individuals who did not work hands-on with the horses, but whose work played a critical role in shaping the
Maryland horse industry, particularly the racing community during its glory days. Known as the “Dean of Maryland Race Writers,” Mr. Kelly was unarguably the longest serving, hardest working and most prolifi c equine journalist in Maryland’s horse history. Many decide early in their lives that they want to build their career in the horse world, but Mr. Kelly came into his horse-industry career indirectly, fi rst as a
journalist. In fact, it is darn hard to even earn a living in the horse world, so just having a career and making a living is, in and of itself, an accomplishment. Funny thing is, the same can be said of journalism, so for someone to have a successful career as an equine journalist (of any breed or sport) is a singular and worthy achievement in and of itself. Mr. Kelly’s story goes well beyond his success in journalism and his success in the horse industry, as one of his many protégées, Vinnie Perrone, tell us.
Durability, heart, class and grace What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
by Vinnie Perrone After he won Pimlico’s Old Hilltop Award for lifetime racing achievement and before he won it a second time, Joe Kelly again showed what lay within him. T e Maryland Racing Writers Association had established a $1,000 backstretch scholar- ship for college students, funding it through placement ads from its annual crabfeast pro- gram. My presidency had elicited within the group’s 40-odd members all the pep and initia- tive of drywall––at a meeting in 1992, no one readily off ered to sell the ads, even for a small commission. T en a 74-year-old hand went up, the oldest at the meeting, the one that had so enriched the state racing industry and the people in it, the last in the room that should have risen. Joe’s. Within a few years, his robust ad sales had hiked the endowment to $2,000. “I’m glad to do it,” Joe said after politely rejecting a higher percentage. “It keeps me in the game.” For nearly seven racing decades, Joseph B.
Kelly was the game. Born in 1918, the year af- ter Man o’ War, he too left an imprint deeper and diff erent than his contemporaries––as a humble and tireless writer, historian, pioneer, editor, organizer,
publicist, philosopher and
mainstay of the Maryland turf. Talk about getting the distance: In the sum-
38 | THE EQUIERY | FEBRUARY 2013
mer of 2011, the Mid- Atlantic T oroughbred planned a spread on the Laurel Park centennial and asked Joe to write a short memoir on its once-signature race, the Washington, DC Inter- national. Editors fret- ted about overloading him and wondered how much usable grist he might produce at 93. T e answer arrived as six utterly
enchanting
essays, each a toast to Joe’s lilting prose and gentle style. “I had fun doing them,” he said, ever grateful for the acknowledgement. Where Joe had
shrugged at his own ac- complishments,
history
Joe Kelly with news industry colleagues, circa 1970/1971. Standing L-R: Bill Phillips, The Daily Racing Form; Joe Kelly, The Baltimore Sun; Clem Florio, The Baltimore News-American; [unknown] The Washington Post; Dale Austin, The Batimore Sun; Gene Witting- ton; William Boniface, The Baltimore Sun. Seated L-R: Joe Broca- tor, The Washington Post, Charles Lamb, The Baltimore News- American. Photo courtesy of Jacques Kelly, a writer with The Baltimore Sun.
nods. After graduating from Loyola College in 1939, he offi cially be- gan his benefi cent doings as a Baltimore welfare department social worker. But he’d tasted the newswriting zest at the college paper and, in 1943, became a reporter for T e Baltimore Sun.
Soon immersed in fetlocks and furlongs, Joe
covered his fi rst Preakness in 1946, chronicling the unlikely deeds of club-footed Triple Crown winner Assault. T e following April, he covered the racing debut of Citation, barely a winner at
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