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YEAR: 2009

PETER YEATMAN

I suppose as your father was a trainer you were always going to go into the game?
The old man worked as a foreman for old Free Holmes for many years and took his stars like Trix Pointer when they went to Auckland. He was later a trainer and he also rode in saddle races. In fact, he fell off the famous saddle pacer Mankind when he was winning one day and I got sick of hearing about that. But no, I wasn't really interested in the horses and I went to the races one day when I was about 19 and I got hooked into it.

What was your next step?
My first job was with Cecil Devine, and I was there quite a while. We had our moments and at one stage parted on bad terms but it was the best thing which ever happened to me. I learned so much there. He was a master trainer.

Which era were you there?
False Step, Thunder and Teryman were there then. They were all good horses to handle. It was a bit of a breeze when you look back on it from the horses to handle viewpoint but it wasn't so good when the Van Diemans came into work.

The problem?
Cecil stood Van Dieman (with which he won the 1951 New Zealand Cup) at stud on the property - we did the stud work as well - but they weren't nice horses. They were spooky and nervous and jumped out of their gear with any excuse. I remember I was working up a horse called Van Rush. He was a four-year-old before we got him to pace right. I used to drive him around behind in the hoppled work. One day Cecil told me I could pull him out and try him at the end. Well, he just ran past all of them. I never got to drive him again. I think he won his first four or five races.

Stablehands worked long hours in those days?
We worked 6½ days. We fed up at lunchtime on Sunday and had the rest of the day off. But I was living in a whare on the place and virtually had to stay round to keep an eye on the horses. We used to do the oats too. We'd get up at five and have the horses finished by nine and then we would spend all day harvesting and often go back after tea. Jack Smolenski was there then. I told him I'd worked out that the contractors were getting five bob an hour and knocking off at five and we went on and were getting a shilling an hour. But we really didn't mind that much. I didn't do much outside the horses anyway.

What about the work schedule with the horses?
You had to have your own stopwatch. Everything Cecil did was based on the watch. You would be told to run your first half in maybe 1:15, and given all the other sectionals to do in great detail, and there was a problem if you didn't get it right. It was down to a fine art.

Cecil had a reputation for being a bit of a character to work for?
He was very thorough down to the last detail and he was down on any of us drinking. In fact, we parted ways later on when he was told I had been drinking at the races. I hadn't been and I resented that. Cecil used to go to town every Friday and we had to do our usual full brushing down twice a day. He put double covers on his horses and we had to take both off and do it properly. Just in case we were tempted to cheat a bit when he was away he would put some straw between the covers. If they weren't disturbed when he checked after coming home, which meant you had only done half the job, you were in bother.

Did you have a better offer when you left?
Well, not really, but Cecil and I had a disagreement one time when I was mowing the lawn for him and he was on about drinking again. I sort of quipped that I had just got the mower out of the shed and there had been a few empty bottles of his in there. I was sacked on the spot. When I walked away Cecil wanted to know where I was going. I said: "Well, you sacked me." And he replied: "Yes, but not until you have finished the lawn." He was a character. I went back there for a while later and we got on alright.

Reg Curtin has always been a great mate of yours. Was it around then you met?
Yes, it was a bit unusual then. There was a lot of feeling between the Devine and Litten stables over False Step, and Reg worked for Jack Litten. Some people took it all pretty seriously but Reg and I didn't let it bother us. He has been a great friend. We have had a lot of fun over the years. Mind you I never resisted sorting him out on the track when it counted.

You then went to Ron Kerr. What was the reason for that?
Ron was a specialist at breaking in horses and curing problem horses, especially gallopers. I had not had that sort of experience. He was a great stockman and had a good pacer then, Mighty Loyal, but mostly he was educating them.

What sort of problems did the gallopers have?
We used to get the ones who were rebels and bad buckers who couldn't be controlled. Ron used to put a pack saddle on them, hook half a bag of chaff on both sides and let them go bucking in the yard. When they got tired of doing that we would get on them and after a while they got the message.

Did you go out on your own them?
No. I had just got married and was working night shifts and started helping Jim Dalgety when he was at Templeton opposite Don Nyhan's. After a year I went fulltime with Jim. We had quite a lot of success. I mean, I was the third driver in the stable but I drove five winners in that first season and I was the equal leading probationary driver. There were only 12 races for probationary drivers all over the South Island in those days.

How long were you there?
Quite a while. Later Jim moved out to West Melton and went into the breeding game. We were finding our way in the early days we didn't tag the mares which was fine if we were both there every day in the breeding season, but if you had been away and others had arrived, things could get tricky. Fortunately, we got it right virtually all the time. But I wanted to work more with racehorses and set up on my own.

Where?
Jack Parsons had a place in Yaldhurst just opposite where Allan Holmes trained. I worked the night shift and trained a horse for Jack for the rent. He had leased a horse called Local Star to Hec Jardin and I got that to train. It was my first winner (1965). I used to pre-train too and Derek Jones was a great supporter of me at that stage.

Any of his top ones?
I broke Leading Light in for Derek and told him I thought it was well above average. Derek said: "All right, send him over." But he lined him up at Methven first up and broke up with the money on. Derek said to me: "Peter, even though he broke I think you overrated that horse." He sent it down south and didn't go to drive it himself. It won by 20 lengths and, of course, ended up winning an Auckland Cup (1969) for Derek and Jack Grant. Great speed horse. Jack Parsons had his sire, Local Light.

In those days three training wins seemed a good season, five a top one and anything else sensational for many trainers. How did you survive?
Local Jen was leased to me by Jack Parsons and she won five good stakes for us. Then I won quite a few races with Morris Pal which Mike and Colin De Filippi's father, Rod, raced with me. Yes, there weren't many racing opportunities then especially for the slower ones unless you went to the Coast and I used to take horses to Hawera to get starts and form for them. Some are back doing that now but it was real bad in the 1980s down here. You had to qualify and then win a trial to have a show of a start at popular meetings.

What sort of money did it cost to train a horse with you?
Five pounds ($10) a week when I started. Some were charging £7 but you had to give a discount to get any horses. Remember there were no driving fees paid then if you trained the horse as well. That is why when I was starting out there were no professional drivers outside Doug Watts. Even Maurice Holmes had to train as well. Most drove their own and if you didn't drive, it was hard to get any horses because of the extra expense for owners.

Kata Hoiho I remember as one of your best horses. Didn't he have thoroughbred blood in him?
Yes, his mother (Our Helen) was by a galloper (Prince Bobby) but I didn't know a lot about his breeding. He came from the Coast (bred by the Moynihan family of Hokitika) and Neil Edge got hold of him. He won what is now the West Coast bonus (Westport Cup, Westport second-day feature and Reefton Cup) as a three-year-old. Unfortunately, they didn't have it then. We had a bit of luck with galloping blood. Neil raced Te Aro Boy, which was out of a mare which Jim Dalgety had bred from a thoroughbred cross, and he went alright.

What happened to Kata Hoiho?
He ran second in the Hororata Cup at three then won the Methven Cup early in his four-year-old season. We sold him in America after that.

Any luck?
Funny thing, I took a flight of horses over to America later with Reg (Curtin) and met the top American men who trained and drove him, Billy O'Donnell and Jerry Silverman. They told me he was the best Kiwi horse they had handled up until then and he qualified in 1:57 with his head on his chest. But he broke down before he could race and never came back.

You seemed to do well in staying races. Any particular reason?
I think we won 11 provincial cups at 3200m on both sides of the Alps. The Methven and Hororata Cups on the grass, all those sort of races. I have never had more than 10 racehorses in work. I used to think the staying races were a bit easier to win than the sprints, especially down in the grades. A lot of the time they weren't run at a lot of speed which helped the lesser horse. In the shorter trips it tested just their speed. I remember taking Flying Home to Hawera and we won a 3200m from a mobile gate in 4:40 on a good track.

What was the secret of success on the West Coast tracks? You seemed to concentrate on that circuit.
Yes, we were always going over there, even to the gallops meetings where they had two trots. At that time you could get a lot of starts with an out-of-form horse because the fields were not usually full. You could end up having two starts on each of the two days at Westport, two more at Reefton and then there were three days at Greymouth to follow. Everything had it's chance to earn some money. You had to back them as well and you knew all the form. All you had to worry about was first starters, they could fool you. You could pinch an advantage at times, especially at the start. I had a horse called Pussy Foot which drew the second line 11 times in 14 starts in the trots at gallop meetings over there and never started from the second line once. You could usually find a space on the front if you timed it right.

And the driving?
That was another thing. The good horses didn't go over there so a lot of the top drivers didn't go either. You were driving against a lot of owner-trainers and amateurs and the professionals had a wee bit more in their favour. The front was still the safest place to be. And mind you, we could come unstuck too.

Example?
I started Colin McLauchlan off in the trotting game. He had had a horse with (Cecil) Devine which I got to work up, and then he started coming out and working the horses and he got into the game in a big way later. I leased Miss Frost for him and she won four races in 10 days. Colin was a fitness fanatic himself and it worked for him. He died just recently in his 80s and none of his immediate family had lived past 60. Anyway, I had a horse of his at Greymouth one day and it was paying about $60s. Colin liked a bet, I liked the horse and he went and put $100 on the nose.

Bad result?
You wouldn't believe it, I miscounted the rounds. I made my usual move at Greymouth which was down the back and I was cruising. Then I realised I had gone a round too soon. If there was a track that could fool you like that it was Victoria Park. Anyway, we ended up finishing fourth. Colin put another hundred on it the second day and it won. But it paid less than $2 and Colin actually lost money on the deal. He took it pretty well.

Did the stipes take any action?
Yes, I copped a fine from Len Butterfield and it had a follow up. A short time later John Bennett did the same thing with David Frost at Timaru but he held on to win. Butterfield told him he had fined a bloke the other day for it and he was going to have to fine him too even though he won. I think he got $150. John always blamed me for him getting a big hit in the pocket.

Reverting to Kata Hoiho, I suppose the export market growth became your main focus?
Yes, it was a great boon. but horses can surprise you sometimes.

Like?
I had a horse once for the connections of Holy Hal. Arthur Idiens was in it too. It could only run 2400m in 3:38 when I got it going, but I thought it had a bit of potential. Anyway, they wanted to finish with it. I said I would train it for a month for nothing and pay all the disposal costs if it didn't get any better. It fell over the next day and hurt itself a bit, but by the end of the month I felt it was worth going on with. However they had had enough. I bought him for $50 and sold him later to America for $5000, which was good money then. I didn't feel all that good about it but I had done all I could for them. I made sure I never sold duds to America.

Montini Royal was a good winner for you. Did Reg Curtin talk you into breeding to Montini Bromac?
Yes, he went on about it. Reg trained Martini Bromac and he always thought the world of him. Anyway, I sent a mare to him and Martini Royal won the Timaru Nursery Stakes and the Stan Andrews Stakes when that was a big two-year-old race at Addington. I handed the reins over to Jimmy Curtin then. He won over 3200m more than once as a three-year-old, including the Hororata Cup and later won the Methven Cup. He could run 4:08 but as a four-year-old he just had trouble being quite up with the ones he could beat at three.

Anything wrong with him?
No. To be honest, that blue magic stuff was around then. A lot of publicity was about the big stables, but there were quite a few smaller trainers using it. You could work out who. I always had a suspicion that was a cause. He worked as good as ever at home.

Pauls Express was another good performer?
A remarkably consistent horse. I remember they used to hold up the record of Rupee who was in the money in 23 of his first 25 starts. Well, Pauls Express did that too but didn't win as many. He wasn't top class but very honest.

Have you raced a horse with Reg Curtin?
No. We raced a dog together trained bu Ray Adcock who started off in trotting and it won ten races. Genuine Ace it was called. And I did Reg and Les Lisle a favour with a mare called Redundant.

How?
It wasn't going much and I think Jimmy (Curtin)thought she was shooting material. Reg and Les had bred her. Anyway, I won a couple of races with her and she has been a gun broodmare. She has left at least seven winners and we have had Muscle Machine and Rosie J out of her ourselves. My son Robert (who races Les Lisle with Roddy Curtin)has been breeding from her.

You had some fun on the road at times?
There was the time Reg reckoned I killed a lady at Addington.

Surely not?
I was driving Brase for Allan Holmes there one day and it won a good age-group race and paid over $100. A lady in the stand who had backed it got so excited she dropped dead from a heart attack. Reg said it was obviously my fault.

Best horse you have seen?
Close finish between Cardigan Bay and Christian Cullen. They were the best of my era.

How do you view harness racing today?
They have got most things right, especially the handicapping system and the free starts. It is far better. Pat O'Brien (Chairman Harness Racing New Zealand) is a friend of mine but I think he is doing the right things

Credit: David McCarthy writing in The Press 12May2009



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