WA Racing

Bob Peters:  Racing’s Success Story

Entering Bob Peters office is like entering the establishment of a leading goldsmith.

It has a sophisticated ambience to it but instead of having trays of rings and necklaces the gold is in the cups- and six Perth Cups, glitter at any visitor who enters his inner sanctum.

 The late professional punter, Don Scott, in his various Winning books always talked about putting ‘more fruit on the sideboard.’ Bob’s problem is that he hasn’t enough sideboards to carry ‘the fruit,’ he has already won.

In the 2015-16 season the cerise and white colours were carried to victory 108 times: 78 in the city and 30 times on provincial tracks; with 22 group and listed successes ensuring a twenty per cent strike rate of black type to total winners.

At the end of that season he and his wife Sandra had managed 174 Stakes winners. These included, 11 Oaks, eight Derbies, six Perth Cups, four Kingston Town Classics (appropriate for a man who claims the great black gelding as his favourite and the best he has seen), two Railway Stakes, two Goodwood Handicaps with singular successes in the Winterbottom Stakes, Australian Cup and Emirates Stakes.

Group 1 successes stand at a massive 22, with 20 at Group 2 level, 39 at Group 3 and 93 listed successes for a total of 15 per cent of black type to total winners. How much pleasure can one man endure?

This staggering black type record started with Reinella winning the Ascot Gold Cup on November 3, 1979.Reinella won 10 races -seven of them between July-November 1979,including five cup races. Good memories but destined to pale into insignificance compared to later achievements.

Despite his fairy tale racing life Bob was no silvertail, starting life humbly on a farm, in the rural area of Dalwallinu, where his father was a farmhand until war service intervened.

His early equine interest was also far removed from the pristine, manicured turf of Cameron Sutherland’s tracks, today.

He recalled working horses in the latter part of World War 2, particularly a stock horse called Charlie, in an era when there was little money for tractors. “We sold him a couple of times but he kept coming home, having been used for ploughing and harvesting. “I remember hanging on to Charlie’s mane and tail and riding him bareback. It was where I learned to balance.”

By 1946 the Peters family was ensconced in Lathlain Park, later moving to Rivervale, a place, in that era, where there was plenty of horses and stables.

He remembers a young Ray Oliver frequenting the same nearby milk bar as him while several trainers had stables behind the Rivervale Primary School.

It was a different world and one that still had a role for the horse and cart –milkman, bakers, butchers and green grocers traversing the suburbs, in that mode of transport, was not uncommon.

Bob and the Holt sisters both had a love of horses and they combined to buy a horse for nine pounds ($18). His one third share gained him possession of a biter and kicker but it didn’t stop him from riding it bare back. “I had no money to buy gear but I rode it everywhere from Fremantle to Kalamunda,” he recalled.

There was, according to that doyen of strappers, Vic Humann, no indication that his  Rivervale Primary School classmate,was going to be a veritable powerhouse when it came to breeding and owning racehorses. “He was very quiet and never said much at all,” Vic recalled.

But he was bright and gained a scholarship, while at Rivervale, to provide books for secondary school and go to Hale College, then in West Perth.

He really wanted to go to Bassendean’s trade School but ‘compromised’ with his parents and went to Kent St – a worthy public secondary school.

“I did professional studies but hadn’t any idea what I was going to do but I loved Economics and was dux in that subject.”

He chose working for National Mutual over the Commonwealth Bank but after a year he decided to do a Bachelor of Economics degree and worked nights delivering milk.

A year later with no social life to speak of and with job prospects narrowing to working in government or a financial institution,he quit his studies.

Having met Sandra, his future wife, at school his wanting a social life was understandable but not his choice of location. He travelled to the Wheatbelt for a year, water boring and sinking wells. He got back at weekends though to date his telephonist girlfriend.

Bob was to find his niche in selling cars after starting with Western Motors driving as an assistant to the General Sales Manager, driving cars to Subiaco to be licensed and supervising their delivery. He  met  a young bloke at 21, two years older them him, earning a lot more selling.

Despite being initially deemed too young to sell he gained a start selling used cars at Fremantle for a company that had the franchise for Volkswagen, quickly building up sales figures.

He obviously impressed Dave Golding, of Premier Motors, who employed him to join that firm. A car that had sat unsold for two years, was sold by Bob on his first day.

In July 1963, aged 20, he married Sandra and the couple honeymooned in Sydney.

Thinking he may lose his young salesman, Golding flew to Sydney, to make Bob ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse’ – to run his dealership in Fremantle with three new car franchises.

At the age of 22 he started his own business. Between 1964 -72 he developed  eight car yards under Autoways, plus two GMH Holden franchises. In 1972 Autoways was sold and Bob concentrated on building the business by adding numerous new car and truck franchises. At its peak this busness was selling over 10,000 vehicles per year and employing over 500 people.

Bob’s niche in being a successful car man allowed him to develop his equine interests. Indeed, the Peters’ raison d’etre was to be successful in business to pursue his equine passions.

From the boy who had nothing to spend on riding gear he became Master of the WA Hunt Club, then a WATC member in 1973. In 1975, aged 33, he was the youngest committeeman elected and eventually served as chairman.

As an owner he had early success with Cagney and Baltusroi but after a while he wanted his horses stabled in a more rural environ and trainer Roy Edwards at Forrestfield (how times change) fitted the bill. Bob even had his hunter with this ‘meticulous trainer’ and was able to ride through bushland.

Victorian George Hanlon was another favourite trainer and the pair regularly conversed on the phone and after reporting on the horses the pair would engage in politics, sport and world news. “George was a great conversationalist,” he recalled.

The WA owner-breeder was Hanlon’s major client although other state notables included Jeremy Hayes and Robert Holmes a’ Court.

The owner and the trainer thought they had won the 1988 Caulfield Cup with Congressman but the judge’s third print gave it to Imposera by a flared nostril. Bob described standing in the second stall “as the loneliest place in the world.”

Old Spice is clearly his favourite horse but it was at stud rather than on the track where he shone. At one stage he had sired eight of Peters, then 13, Group 1 winners.

The Peters first Group 1 success was with one of his daughters- Natasha the duel WA Oaks and Derby winner (now Group 2 races).

Old Comrade and Rogan Josh added further lustre to their sire’s name; the former with some epic clashes with Northerly with honours even, 2-2; the latter by winning the 1999 Melbourne Cup.

Old Nick,Old Money, Field Officer,Foreman and Spectrum were other Old Spice success stories on the track and the sire was noted for producing both good sprinters and stayers that were tough and thrived on hard work. Rogan Josh who  won the MacKinnon Stakes four days before his Melbourne Cup triumph exemplified that quality.

From a breeding viewpoint, Bob particularly liked putting well bred mares, particularly Alycidon and Grey Sovereign lines, to the stallion.

Some of his current gallopers go back to his early days and he becomes effusive when talking breeding stock.

“Disposition goes back five generations. I had Traguardo in the early 1980s and she threw Tanoa, (by Ksar). We then put her to Old Spice and got Spectrum (1998 Goodwood Handicap winner). Tanoa was then mated with Testa Rosa and we got Test Case, the dam of Disposition.”

That Belgravia &Fairetha Stakes winner was one of five runners in the 2016 Railway Stakes to wear the cerise and white colours. Perfect Reflection (a Kingston Town Classic & Lee Steere Stakes winner) and Ideal Image (La Trice and Jungle Dawn classics) came from his 1999 WA Oaks winner, Reflected Image.

However, in recent times it was Delicacy, now retired, that captured the racing public’s heart, despite being under appreciated, early by Peters and his champion jockey, William Pike.

In 19 starts she won a dozen races and was placed five times and Peter Hall was aboard in six of those races, Pike five times and Chris Parnham for her first win.

Two of those wins came in Group 1 races in SA when Pike was injured and Hall became the beneficiary. On other occasions Pike as the number 1 rider for Peters preferred other runners wearing the cerise and white, notably Neverland.

Indeed, Delicacy’s last three races were something special to behold with two wins and a second.

The second placing came in a thriller, beaten by stablemate Perfect Reflection in the 2015 Kingston Town Classic. With Delicacy flooding home faster than a Japanese Tsunami, from 14^th on the home turn, Perfect Reflection fell in by the proverbial pouted lip.  

One over heated Eastern States scribe, at the time, said that Perfect Reflection had supplanted Delicacy as Peters’ best horse.

Not quite. For a start there was a 6.5kg weight advantage for the filly, while the stewards’ report, stating that Delicacy had been held up in the home straight, indicated just how unlucky the four year old mare had been.

Pike must have thought in those desperate, driving final few metres that once again he had made the wrong call, in deciding against Delicacy, but this time he got it right-just.

Two weeks later, on December 19, 2015, Pike was back on her for the CB Cox Stakes and they combined to run down the pacemaker Black Heart Bart to win going away.

However, for the Perth Cup on New Year’s Day 2016 Pike, as he had done before elected to ride Neverland, in preference to Delicacy. He had made such a call earlier in 2015, being runner up to Delicacy in the 1000 Guineas and then third to her in the Natasha Stakes.

Once again Peter Hall was to be delighted with Pike’s decision, and with him aboard the great mare, she swept past her rival, after being ninth on the turn, to record a three quarter length victory, despite her 5kg weight disadvantage.

On that day the Bob and Sandra’s  colours were carried to victory in four races while in the Perth Cup they filled the trifecta (Real Love, who had won the previous  year’s Cup, was third)- a singular achievement, or so it seemed then.

Ever the breeder, Bob’s comment was, “the real enjoyment was that we had bred all four winners that day from mares that we had also bred and raced and that also applied to our three Perth Cup place getters.”

Unfortunately the great mare was injured in that Perth Cup triumph and it was announced her career was over, a few days later. Her record: nine stakes wins among her 12 victories, including a Group 1 SAJC Australasian Oaks –Derby double, a Group 2 WATC Oaks-Derby double plus the Perth Cup, two Group 3 and two Listed races.

It wasn’t the first time his horses were involved in high drama. Twelve months earlier Elite Belle, the dual Railway Stakes and CB Cox Stakes winner, died en route to Melbourne, after a heart attack during the plane trip.

Triumph to tragedy is never far away on racetracks.

When Elite Belle won the CB Cox Stakes she was one of four Stakes winners on the day that carried the Peters’ colours. “I was so proud of her it and was the first time we had won four feature races at a single meeting.”

His other winners on that day, in December 2014, were Real Love (St Leger), Shining Knight (Crawford Stakes) and Real Charm (Starstruck Stakes).

In the weekend before Christmas 2016 another remarkable day unfolded for Team Peters.

In the Listed Starstruck Classic (1600m) it was once again a case of the cerise and white colours being 1-2-3 across the line. Cosmic Storm (Pike) and Silverstream (Glenn Smith), both trained by Grant and Alana Williams, took the quinella while Antique Dream (Chris Parnham) from Geoff Durrant and Jason Miller’s stable, was third.

Two races later, in one of the most remarkable feature races seen at Ascot the inaugural  $250,000 Group 2 Ted van Heemst  Stakes, (formerly CB Cox Stakes), resulted in the cerise and white juggernaut jockey again celebrating with Perfect Reflection. However, they had to withstand a most daring ride by the Frenchman, Matthieu Autier, on Fathoms of Gold, a $61 chance, in the 2100m race.

At one stage Autier had the field strung out behind him, with a 15 length lead, and it was only in the last five strides that Pike thought he was going to get there on the $1.80 favourite. Perfect Reflection’s margin was three quarters of a length.

As for Team Williams, not to be outdone by their main client, they also picked up another win, in between these two dramatic features, with Tommy Who. It was a great winning hat-trick for them in another dramatic day.

Even at this stage of the season the Williams pair appear to have a stranglehold on the metropolitan trainers premiership. Thus, December 21 was a timely reminder of Bob’s ability to select well in all phases of racing.

The Peters celebrations for the festive season got even better on Christmas Eve after Glenn Smith piloted Star Exhibit to a convincing last-to-first victory in the ATA Stakes on Christmas Eve-the only listed race in Australia on that day.

Smith almost helped himself to a great double a week later but instead it was Jarrad Noske who picked up the ride on Star Exhibit in the Cup while Smith was swung onto the luckless Neverland who again had to settle for second.

In a thrilling head-bobber Smith had it won a stride before and a stride after the post –but Noske prevailed on the line, in desperately staving off the challenge, to give trainers Geoff Durrant and Jason Miller the training triumph over Team Williams.

It was the second time Noske had won the Perth Cup,ironically his first being on a Peters reject, Talent Show, trained by Graeme Ballantyne.

For Bob and Sandra they finished 2016 as they started it with a Perth cup win. This time though it was a quinella, (not the trifecta) plus fourth and fifth placing with Perfect Reflection and Dark Alert. (Tradesman was third).

That effort saw Peters equal the long standing record of seven wins by an owner, established by Paddy Connolly in 1922.

Bob and Sandra also had another great day overall, winning a total of four races, on Perth Cup day with Dezzies Dream (Pike), followed by a quinella in the La Trice Classic with Cosmic Storm  Pike) and  Silverstream (Smith); and in the  last race, where Smith finally won a tight one, on Point, in a keen duel with Pat Carbery on Indi Pacific.

Three of the Peter’s’ winners were from the Williams stable.

So a new Perth Cup record is now beckoning – and if Bob and Sandra succeed in 2018 it would mean four consecutive victories in the great race, (Connolly won five straight, of his seven wins).

Clearly Bob Peters is at short odds to ultimately be the most successful WA owner of Perth Cup winners of all time.

Already, as a breeder, he has no peer in WA.