Les Young Passes Away

Mr Les Young, a founding member, life member and former Vice President of the NSW Racehorse Owners Association, passed away on Friday at the age of 76.

He devoted a lifetime to the Thoroughbred via his passion for pedigrees, of which he became a leading Australian authority, was a respected bloodstock agent and wrote countless articles and regular columns for publications such as the Sportsman (‘Breeders’ World) and Bluebloods Magazine.

On the racing side of the industry, Les was best known as orchestrating the highly successful Brian Mayfield-Smith trained Bob Lapointe-Robert Sangster Nebo Lodge racing, which toppled Tommy Smith from his 33-premiership reign in 1985, winning the next three.

Les was also a successful breeder and advisor to several leading breeding operations.

As well as being honoured with Life Membership of the NSW Thoroughbred Breeders last year, Les was a passionate and committed member of the NSW Racehorse Owners Association. He was a founding member in 1965 and later served as Vice President.

Among several other commitments to the Thoroughbred industry, Les served on RIPAC (Racing Industry Participants Advisory Committee), including a term as Chairman, and was a foundation member from 1995 of the Equine Advisory Committee of the Federal Government’s Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation tasked with allocating funding for equine research projects.

Les was a highly respected ‘gentleman of the turf’ and was generous with his time in his many capacities in the world of racing and is a great loss to our industry.