Ken Oliver (racehorse trainer)

Oliver was educated at Warriston School, Moffat and Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh.[1] After school he joined the family livestock auctioneering business of Andrew Oliver & Son in Hawick, the oldest such firm in the UK having been founded in 1817.[1] He made his winning point-to-point debut in the spring of 1935 on a one-eyed horse called Delman.[1] In September 1937 he held his first bloodstock sales at Kelso.[1]

During World War Two, Oliver served with the Yorkshire Hussars in North Africa and Sicily.[1] He was invalided back to the Scottish Borders and decided the family firm should set up an estate agency.[1] The firm was soon selling farms all over Great Britain and occasionally livestock to the new owners as well.[1]

In 1950 he won the Scottish Grand National as a jockey on a horse called Sanvina.[2] In the early 1950s he received a permit to train; his first victory in 1953 at Rothbury was also one of his final wins as a jockey.[2]

In the 1959 Grand National the Oliver trained Wyndburgh finished second.[2] The horse would repeat the same result in the 1962 Grand National, the only horse to ever finish second three times without winning.[2] Oliver was also second in the 1958 Grand National with Moidore's Token.[2]

Oliver won his first Scottish Grand National in 1963 with Pappageno's Cottage.[2] He would win a record five Scottish Grand Nationals with further wins in 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1982.[2]

In November 1968 he won five races in a day at Wolverhampton.[2] At the peak of his career he was winning around 50 races a season.[2]

In 1962 Oliver and Willie Stephenson resurrected the Doncaster Bloodstock Sales.[2]

Oliver was appointed an OBE in the 1997 Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to farming and the local community.[2]

• Scottish Grand National, 1963, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1982.[3]
• Grand Annual Chase, Cheltenham Festival, 1965, 1977.[3]
• County Handicap Hurdle, Cheltenham Festival, 1966.[3]
• Arkle Challenge Trophy, Cheltenham Festival, 1966.[3]
• Hennessy Gold Cup, 1979.[3]
• Greenall Whitley Gold Cup, 1972, 1973, 1975.[3]
• Charlie Hall Chase, 1988.[3]
• ASW Handicap Chase, 1964, 1965, 1974.[3]

• Dan Buglass (1994). Ken Oliver: The Benign Bishop. Marlborough Books. ISBN 1873919158.