Thomas Joseph Kelly
Thomas Joseph Kelly (September 23, 1919 – April 19, 2013) is a United States Racing Hall of Fame trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses as well as an owner and breeder.
Known as "Tommy," but commonly as "T. J.," in his teens Kelly began working at the Baltimore racetrack, as did his younger brother, Eddie. His learning of the business from the bottom up was interrupted by service with the United States military during World War II in which he received two Purple Hearts. Following his discharge, Kelly returned to Thoroughbred racing and obtained his trainer's license in 1945. From then until his retirement from training fifty-four years later in 1998, Kelly won numerous important races and conditioned sixty-five stakes race winners. He trained several very successful horses for owner John M. Schiff including Plugged Nickle, the 1980 American Champion Sprint Horse, and Droll Role, a top runner on both dirt and grass and a winner of the 1972 Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Canada and the Washington, D.C. International Stakes at the Laurel Park Racecourse in his native Maryland.
Widely respected in the industry, in 1954, as the new head trainer for the racing stable of Dan and Ada Rice, Kelly saw the potential in a young jockey named Bill Hartack and purchased his contract from a West Virginia-based trainer. The two met with immediate success with a six-year-old horse named Pet Bully. Hartack developed into one of the top riders in the sport and went on to a Hall of Fame career.
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