Vale Bruce Kennedy

The Kilmore harness racing community is mourning the passing of former local trainer Bruce Kennedy, who died on June 11 at age 86.

Bruce was born and bred in New South Wales and spent most of his life in Moss Vale after shifting from Cooma in the Snowy Mountains.

Travelling around a fair bit, Bruce’s next venture was to shift operation to Kilmore, where he enjoyed almost instant success before shifting back to Moss Vale  to retire at the place he loved.

His winners over the years included Chipland, who had 15 wins between 2002 and 2008, and Art Prevails, who had 12 wins between 2012 and 2020, the last being at Bendigo in 2015 with Darby McGuigan in the sulky.

Funny Car recorded 11 wins between 2011 and 2015, the last at Ballarat in 2014 when driven by Chris Alford, and Kybean Vic had 13 wins, having raced in NSW with a stint in Queensland winning at Albion Park in May 2000 for John McCarthy.

Sweet Home Alabama chalked up 13 wins in NSW and Victoria before being sold to Western Australia where he won twice at Gloucester Park, the last in November 2008 when driven by Gary Hall Jnr.

Without doubt Bruce’s best performer was Enthral (pictured) a winner of 26 races in Victoria and Queensland, the most significant being the $27,000 Vicbred Sires Stakes at Moonee Valley in December 2009 when driven by Jodi Quinlan.

In all Bruce trained 162 winners with 337 placings from 1700 starts totalling $711,00 in stakes.

Bruce was a popular resident of Kilmore during his time in Victoria and enjoyed talking to the media on numerous occasions.

His funeral will be held at the Catholic Church in Sutton Forest, Moss Vale (NSW), on Thursday June 22.

Harness Racing Victoria and the Kilmore community expresses their sincere sympathy to Bruce’s wife Janelle and daughter Lesley on his passing.

by Len Baker, for Harness Racing Victoria