John H. Ingham

Infobox Person
name = Jack Ingham


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = June 10, 1928
birth_place = Casula, New South Wales
death_date = August 5, 2003
death_place =
occupation = Businessman:
Poultry breeding & processing
Racehorse owner/breeder

John Horace Ingham AO (June 10, 1928 - August 5, 2003) was a leading Australian businessman and co-founder of the largest Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding operation in Australia.

Always known as "Jack," he was born in Casula, New South Wales, the son of farmer Walter Ingham. On his fathers death in 1953, he and younger brother Bob took over Ingham Enterprises Pty Limited, a small family-run poultry breeding business founded in 1918. The brothers built the company into the largest producer of chickens and turkeys in Australia. Now headquartered in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool, the operation has annual sales of more than $1.5 billion and a workforce in excess of six thousand people. At the time of his death in 2003, Jack Ingham was Joint Managing Director of the company.

Thoroughbred horse racing

Jack Ingham's father had had an interest in breeding horses and in addition to the poultry business, the brothers also inherited a broodmare named Valiant Rose. The mare was a descendant of the great British racehorse Bend Or, an Epsom Derby winner and Champion broodmare sire. The Ingham brothers used Valiant Rose to begin building what became a $250 million breeding and racing operation, the largest in Australia. Their equine empire includes Woodlands Stud at Denman, New South Wales in the Hunter Valley and Crown Lodge racing stables at Warwick Farm Racecourse in Sydney and Carbine Lodge racing stables at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, plus racing stables in Adelaide and Brisbane.

The most famous of the Inghams successful horses was Octagonal, the 1996 Australian Horse of the Year and a winner of multiple Group One races including the Cox Plate and the Australian Derby.

In recognition of his contributions to the economy of Australia, Jack Ingham was honored by his government as an Officer of the Order of Australia. A long-time member of the executive committee of the Australian Jockey Club, in 2004 he was inducted posthumously in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

In 2003, at age seventy-five, Jack Ingham died at Westmead Hospital in Sydney after a long struggle with leukemia.

Jack Ingham had been married three times and had five children.

References

* [http://www.woodlandsstud.com/Woodlands-Site/index.htm Woodlands Stud website with the Ingham brothers history]
* [http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=1041323&search_type=quick&showInd=true Government of Australia website with Australian Honours for Jack Ingham]
* [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/05/1060064185667.html Obituary for Jack Ingham in the "The Sydney Morning Herald"]