OBITUARY

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 March 1922, Page 4

OBITUARY

■ - LEN HEGARTY. (Special to the Star.) CHRISTCHURCH, Marph 23. General regret will be felt in sport-

•- ing circles throughout the Dominion at the news of the death of the wellknown jockey, Len Hegarty, which s occurred at the Westport Hospital $ this morning. Ho left early this 1 week for tho West Coast in charge of s Falstaff, but on his arrival he was tak- / en ill and death came suddenlyl'ne immediate cause was spinal meningitis ’ but it is probable .that it was traceable to a fall which he had when schooling a horse at Riccarton on the eve of the Grand National meeting . last August. He made a somewhat . slow recovery from that mishap, and he had never really regained his best ' health. The deceased jockey commenced rid- ' ing on the flat about twenty years 1 ago, but for some years he was best known as a rider in hurdle and steeplechase events. He was a game horseman whose services were at everyone’s disposal for schooling jumpers, and during the last few years he had handled many horses of alf kinds at Riccarton. Hegarty spent a few years in Melbourne, where he rode with considerable success ,in jumping races. Shortly after his return to Riccarton he took service with Mr. T. 11. Gillett, in whose employ he remained until recently. Among his successes in big jumping races were the Grand National .Hurdle Handicap on Sir Solo; the Lincoln Steeplechase on Merry Lad; while he was associated, with Manawapanga in practically all his races after the AU Black gelding came to Riccarton. Hegarty, besides being a iirst-class. jockey, was a keen footballer, playing in last year’s Canterbury Rugby football competitions in the colours of the Riccarton Football Club. For several years he captained the South Island Jockeys’ team against the North Island, and was always a hard player from whistle to whistle. In boxing ho could handle Hie gloves much better than the average man, and coached his brother “Jimmy,” who proved himself the champion amateur boxer of Australasia and was later killed in action in 1914 at Gallipoli.