| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 2009
 |
Percy Chew Lee has the distinction of being New Zealand's first licensed Chinese trainer.
Born in Top Gon village, Canton, China in 1911, Percy's family emigrated to NZ shortly after. Percy began market gardening as a young man, armed with a shovel, rake and three horses for ploughing, harrowing and grubbing.
Within a couple of years, he was suppyling as far as Invercargill with fresh vegetables, and his farm was producing 4-5000 bales of hay, as well as farming pigs and cattle. He also supplied tons of tomatoes for sauce making to supply soldiers overseas during World War II.
Percy's interest in racehorses was kindled by Free Holmes who suggested that, with his small stature, he would make a good jockey. However it was to Harness Racing he turned after working horses for Jimmy Bryce.
Percy's first horse was Chinese Gold, a rogue horse who went on to win races after responding to Percy's regime of putting it in harness and pulling the weight of a clod crusher over his fields.
He bought Marino Maid for £300, quite a sum for those days. Colin McDonald drove her to win her first two starts at Westport. Marino Maid won two Westport Cups in a row with Percy's son Paul doing the driving, and won 7 races all told. Her daughter Amerino also won seven races before being sold to the USA.
Other horses to have won for Percy are Zager, Boy Logan, Astron, Astrodome and Gay Return, who won several races after being bought from a dispersal sale. He continues his involvement, at the age of 97, with harness racing by having an interest in the rising three-year-old Cullen's Party.
A successful wrestler, and champion cyclist, Percy won the South Island 50 mile Road Race by a distance of 2 miles, and rode his bike from Christchurch to Auckland (and return) to propose marriage to Alice, to whom he is still married. Their large family consists of 6 boys, 3 girls, 21 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren and includes 15 university graduates. His family own more than 100 hectares of land within 5km of Christchurch city in the Cashmere Valley.
In 2007, Percy was awarded the Queens Service Medal for his services to the community, and his contribution to NZ's Chinese community.
Credit: M Gallagher