Alabama Lass celebrations tinged with regret
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • April 5th, 2025 10:00 AM • 3 min read
The celebrations that have surrounded the achievements of flying Kiwi filly Alabama Lass have to some degree been tinged with regret.
Already recognised as one of New Zealand’s most talented three-year-olds, on Saturday Alabama Lass added another dimension with her all-the-way win in the A$500,000 World Pool Sprint Classic down the Flemington straight.
Missing from the entourage cheering her and jockey Craig Williams on were her co-trainer Bev Kelso as well as a member of the original ownership group, Morrie Dunn.
Poor health over the past year or more has prevented Bev Kelso from accompanying her training partner, husband Ken, on raceday and she has had to make do with watching the action from her Matamata home.
Even more telling for connections, Morrie Dunn passed away before Alabama Lass had raced and his portion of the partnership with mates Eddie Tynan and John Moore has since been taken up by his widow Marie, son Murray and daughter-in-law Jo Dunn, and their close friends Sue and Tony Egan.
Dunn had a broad reach in racing circles, going back to his days in the 1970s as a builder when his projects included the original yearling barns at Cambridge Stud and the stable block at Laurie Laxon’s Racecourse Road property near the Cambridge training centre.
In more recent times he had maintained his ties as a regular racegoer and participant as well as being the popular host at Mount Maunganui’s Turf Bar.
“Morrie and I go back to our days when Jim Gibbs was training,” Aucklander Tynan recalled. “My best horse was Kerry O’Reilly and when he retired my partners in him decided not to get another horse, so I asked Jim to find me another on that I would race by myself.
“Jim suggested that racing a horse by myself would be too costly and said he could arrange a couple of clients that I could join up with, and one of those was Morrie.
“He and I became great friends, after Jim retired we had horses with Donna Logan and Morrie was our designated driver, picking me up on the way to Ruakaka and winning a few races up there with a horse called In Flight that we raced with Jim and another former client, Ray Thornley.
“When Donna moved to Singapore, Morrie and I raced Shoshone with Ken and Bev (Kelso), she won six races, then when we were looking for a replacement, John Moore came into the partnership when Ken selected Alabama Lass at a sale in Melbourne two years ago.
“We really miss Morrie and so wish he could be part of the wonderful time we’re having with this filly, but it’s great to have Marie, Murray and the rest of their group involved.”
Bev Kelso’s experience with Alabama Lass has been largely arm’s length due to her health issues, but the fact that her husband describes her as his “eyes and ears” indicates her skilled input to the wide range of training and programming decisions for stable members.
“Of course I’d much rather be able to travel and be hands-on, but I’m still able to enjoy it,” she told RaceForm. “On Saturday I had my good friend Jeanann Hercock staying here and we gave the Trackside TV coverage a good old yell.
“Ken goes on about me giving the couch a hiding, but for her last two wins I’ve actually been quite teary, it’s been lovely to see her doing so well.
“Just after the race our friends Grant and Heather Hill dropped in with a bottle of bubbly, so we were able to celebrate in appropriate style. I really stepped myself out with half a glass!”
Alabama Lass is yet another quality filly to add her name to an extraordinary list moulded from the Kelsos’ small stable, and in the opinion of her co-trainer, the fastest of them all.
“Bounding won the Railway and was our best straight-out sprinter, but I believe it now that this filly is the quickest. We’re so proud of her, she’s the real deal. She’s not very big but has so much natural ability, so she can come home now for a well-earned rest and it will be good to see how much she develops as we make plans for the spring.”
