The Invercargill breeder-owner, former trainer and longtime industry sponsor reached the milestone in grand style when his promising trotter, Fiery Bandito, ran to a big win on a night of impressive southern performances at Addington.
The victory continued an astonishing ride for Kilkelly whose interest in the sport goes back to his teenage years, before he first started racing horses in Southland the 1980s.
When looking back, the passionate harness racing supporter feels it is important to focus on the great thrills he has enjoyed in the sport.
"You have to try and focus on the positives with them. You can have a few disappointments along the way but when you look back on it all you think of all the positives."
Kilkelly takes the same approach when thinking back on the career of one of his best horses in U May Cullect.
The brilliant but injury-plagued pacer caught the imagination of harness racing fans with a string of brilliant victories to begin his short career.
"We bought him for $5000 and the best thing was Southland got behind him."
"You look back and you think about what could have been, but you have to think of the positives and the amazing amount of fun we had with him."
Kilkelly counts his 200 wins as horses that have passed through his property, which these days is operated by Kirstin Green.
The tally is made up mostly of horses Kilkelly has bred and owned, many raced with wife Julie and other family members.
After tasting more success than some owners dream of, the southern stalwart has not lost any passion for the industry.
Kilkelly rates the recently retired Smokin Bandar as another of his best horses.
The trotter succumbed to injury almost a year after running second in the group 1 Dominion at Addington.
But only a matter of days after he bowed out, his not-so-little half-brother The Fiery Bandito put his hand up to be a Dominion threat.
"I don’t think that run will get him to the Dominion, but he is going to stay up in Christchurch for a couple of weeks and he will get his chance to qualify."
Just a day prior to Fiery Bandito’s big, win another sibling in Burning Love won easily at Gore, continuing the outstanding record of Kilkelly’s broodmare, The Fiery Filly.
Though there are dozens of other winners to look back on, one of Kilkellly’s horses that southern harness racing fans may remember fondly is Guns N Roses.
The pacer was rilliant at his best though punters never knew what sort of frame of mind the horse would turn up in.
"He was a fantastic horse. I remember Dave McDonald would say ‘Here comes Guns N Roses’."
"Some weeks he would front up and others he wouldn’t. He was a bit different. But he had a brilliant turn of foot."
Kilkelly has more to look forward to this week as Fiery Bandito is back on the Dominion trail at Addington tomorrow night and Burning Love steps out at Wyndham on Friday.
• New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing has moved the Livamol Classic programme scheduled for October 12 from Hastings to Te Rapa, LOVERACING.NZ News Desk reports.
The Arrowfield Stud Plate meeting at Hastings last Saturday was abandoned following a horse slipping in the first race. Post-abandonment work was carried out to the area of concern past the winning post and a set of jumpouts were held on Monday at the track and went without incident.
A risk assessment was undertaken by NZTR management into, not only the safety of the track, but whether the industry could risk further damage should the worst happen given the tracks recent history.
"Given the limited time to thoroughly test the track, the difficult decision was made to move the meeting to Te Rapa," NZTR chief operating officer Darin Balcombe said.
