Group One winner Ron Conquest dies

Former trainer and jockey Ron Conquest who held a special place in Queensland racing history has died aged 86 after a battle with cancer.

Conquest was a member of a family which had a large impact on Queensland racing for nearly a century.

He is one of only three people in modern day Queensland racing to have ridden and later trained a Group One winner in the state.

He won the 1949 and 1950 Group One Stradbroke Handicaps on Lucky Ring and later trained Honest Man who won the Group One 1962 Queensland Derby.

Lucky Ring was trained by Conquest’s father Norman Conquest, making Ron one of only three father/son combinations to win a Group one race in Queensland in modern times.

Conquest is only also one of three apprentices to win the Stradbroke Handicap in the past 80 years.

As a trainer Conquest rarely had a big team but produced plenty of winners.

Conquest’s son Philip was a leading apprentice in the 1970s while his uncles J J Conquest and Bronco Conquest were Group One-winning jockeys and later trainers from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Details of his funeral will be released later this week.