by Jim Haynes
Percy Brown had negotiated a good discount deal to send five mares to Pantheon in his first season at stud. However, when the time came to despatch the mares, he only had four available, so he crossed the road and asked his neighbour if he had a mare to make up the number.
Dangar had an unraced mare named Alwina, whose sire St Alwyne had also sired Melbourne Cup winners Poitrel and Night Watch. He’d bought the mare from the famous Arrowfield Stud for £210 and had no immediate plans for her when Percy Brown called in. He pointed to her in the paddock and said, ‘Take that one.’
So, without any real planning, two great staying bloodlines converged to produce a horse that many believe was certainly the prettiest horse to ever win a Melbourne Cup.
Frank McGrath was impressed by the colt’s good looks, too, but he was more impressed by his solid proportions and strong, clean-cut stayer’s legs. He began training him as a stayer and didn’t even start him in a race until four months later, in May 1932. The fact that the chestnut was unplaced in a two-year-old handicap at Randwick didn’t seem to bother McGrath one bit. He immediately sent him for a spell, and that was Peter Pan’s entire two-year-old campaign—one race, unplaced.
The horse managed to run a nail through a hoof and McGrath had to help him overcome an infection and nurse him back to fitness before he could return to training in the spring. This delayed plans a little but didn’t stop Peter Pan being the well-backed favourite at 5 to 2 in only his second start in a race, first-up, over a mile in a novice handicap at Warwick Farm.
It was stable money that brought the price in to 5 to 2; the colt had run sensational times at trackwork and Frank McGrath said he thought he had ‘the best thing ever on a racetrack’.
What the usually astute trainer had not factored into the equation was that Peter Pan had only ever raced once in a field of horses and once in front of a crowd. This almost brought the well-laid plan undone, as the colt stopped racing whenever the other horses got close around him. In desperation, jockey Andy Knox took him to the outside, only to have the inquisitive colt turn and stare at the yelling crowd.
Knox eventually managed to straighten the flashy youngster and he raced home to dead-heat for first with the runaway leader, Babili. This, at least, saved the stable from embarrassment, not to mention the trainer’s bank balance.
It is remarkable to realise that Peter Pan’s next start in a race, his third in the Rosehill Stakes over a mile, saw the raw young colt pitted against the Melbourne Cup winner Nightmarch, the Sydney Cup winner Johnny Jason, and Veilmond, the winner of the AJC and VRC St Legers.
Peter Pan may have been a raw young colt, but he was good enough to defeat the Melbourne Cup winner by half a length, with the Sydney Cup winner behind them in third place.
Two weeks later, in only his fourth start in a race, Peter Pan contested the AJC Derby. Ridden for the first time by Jim Pike, who had ridden his father into third place in the Melbourne Cup six years earlier, Peter Pan won, easing down, by a length and a half. Behind him were such good horses as the Chelmsford Stakes winner, and famed stayer in later life, Gaine Carrington, the AJC and VRC Sires’ Produce winner Kuvera, and Oro, who would later win a Metropolitan Handicap.
By now Frank McGrath was not the only one looking at the pretty horse and thinking, ‘Here’s a stayer.’ Peter Pan was backed in at 7 to 2 to win the Caulfield Cup at his fifth start.
Andy Knox was back in the saddle at Caulfield, as Jim Pike could not ride at the three-year-old’s handicap weight of 7 st 4 lb (46.5 kg). It was to be Knox’s last ride on Peter Pan.
The golden horse with the silver mane and tail was still ‘a big baby’ in racing parlance and, displaying his often-wayward behaviour once again, he missed the start badly. Andy Knox then raced him wide down the straight the first time round in order to catch the field and find a position, but the early sprint unsettled the horse and he pulled throughout the race and ran out of steam to finish fourth behind Rogilla, on raw talent, despite a dreadful run and a less than memorable ride.
It was a poor enough ride for Frank McGrath to sack Andy Knox and engage lightweight Melbourne jockey Bill Duncan to ride the horse in the Melbourne Stakes over 10 furlongs (2000 metres) on Derby Day.
Peter Pan had not been entered for the VRC Derby, so the Melbourne Stakes (now Mackinnon Stakes) was more or less a consolation prize for McGrath. Missing the derby was a regrettable oversight, but defeating Caulfield Cup winner Rogilla by a length to win the Melbourne Stakes race against all ages was certainly some consolation for losing the Caulfield Cup a few weeks earlier.
It may have been a consolation, but it was also an impressive enough win for the betting public to send the Sydney colt out as 4 to 1 favourite for the Melbourne Cup, at his sixth start in a race.
But it wasn’t only the racing crowd who were impressed by the horse. The flashy three-year-old chestnut was all the rage. He had captured the public imagination and was a popular favourite for the Cup. In fact, his popularity rivalled that of Phar Lap, who had been favourite for the Cup for each of the previous three years, and it was as if the sporting public needed another hero to worship after Phar Lap’s tragic demise in April that year. Australia was still in the grip of the Depression and people needed dreams and distractions; the golden colt with the film star looks and the silver mane was something to talk about, an equine Prince Charming with talent to match his looks.
The public may have had faith in Peter Pan, but his Melbourne Cup victory as a three-year-old was as dramatic and fraught with possible disaster as any before or since.
At around the 5-furlong mark, the colt was ‘pole-axed’ when crowding on the outside led to a chain reaction, which caused him to stumble and fall. As he fell he was again hit as a second wave of interference swept through the field. This caused his stablemate, Denis Boy, to barrel into Peter Pan and, strange as it seems, this second impact pushed him back onto his feet and certainly prevented a bad fall.
Frank McGrath was so certain his horse had fallen that he lowered his field glasses in disgust. He later said, ‘I saw his head go down and then there was a blank space where Peter Pan had been racing.’ It wasn’t until he heard the course broadcaster call his name in the straight that the trainer realised Peter Pan was still running.
Denis Boy’s rider, Harold Jones, told journalists: ‘Just as the gap closed when Yarramba left the rails Peter Pan received a terrible bump and was whirled around until his head faced the rails. He was lucky to keep his feet as he started to fall.’
By the time Duncan got Peter Pan balanced again, the colt was at the rear of the field. How the green three-year-old managed to go on and win a Melbourne Cup and equal the race record was miraculous. Peter Pan stormed home to beat Yarramba by a neck. He returned to the mounting yard with his face covered in grass stains. The perennial old Cup campaigner Shadow King was third and Denis Boy ran fourth.
The outpouring of joy from the crowd was incredible: hats flew into the air, men cheered and women shrieked. Everyone loved the happy ending to the Melbourne Cup—won by the people’s horse with the fairytale name and the movie star looks.
It was the sheer determination and patient care of two great men of the turf that won the day for Peter Pan in reality. Many good judges believe that no other jockey except the under-rated Bill Duncan could have kept the big colt on his feet that day; Duncan was a quiet man and a great jockey in an era of great jockeys.
Frank McGrath had not only nursed Peter Pan through a serious hoof infection, he had also shown patience and good judgement to get the horse to win a Melbourne Cup at his sixth race start. It is an indication of McGrath’s patience and love of the horses in his care that Denis Boy, his other runner that day and the horse that helped keep Peter Pan upright, had actually been nursed back to racing fitness by McGrath after breaking a knee bone. McGrath persevered and had the horse’s leg in a sling until the bone healed. He then trained Denis Boy to win the 1932 AJC Metropolitan Handicap and run fourth behind his more illustri
ous stablemate in the Melbourne Cup. This would be an outstanding achievement with today’s technology, let alone in McGrath’s era.
A trainer of the old school in many ways, Frank McGrath was ‘modern’ in the sense that he always put the horse’s welfare first, and his plans were always long-term plans.
The Melbourne Cup victory earned Peter Pan a four-month holiday in the spelling paddock. McGrath wanted him primed for the autumn racing in Sydney. He then came out and won first-up at a mile at Randwick, once again defeating Rogilla.
At his next start his reputation for clumsiness and getting into trouble in races was given a boost—he became tangled in the starting tapes when 3 to 1 favourite for the Rawson Stakes at Rosehill, and tailed the field home.
Peter Pan was the big drawcard at the Sydney Autumn Carnival of 1933 and he took out three races in eight days: the St Leger, Cumberland Stakes and AJC Plate. The three-year-old was then handicapped at 9 stone (57 kg), 12 pounds (5.4 kg) over weight-for-age, in the Sydney Cup—the same weight Carbine had carried, as a three-year-old, in 1889.
Frank McGrath told the handicapper that times had changed since 1889 and no horse should be given such a weight at three years of age over 2 miles. He then protested in the most effective way possible by simply scratching his horse from the Sydney Cup and putting him aside to prepare for the Melbourne Cup of 1933.
Sadly, however, Peter Pan was to be absent from racetracks for twelve months. He had been handicapped at 9 st 7 lb (60.5 kg) for the Melbourne Cup of 1933 and McGrath thought that this was fair, being 7 pounds (3.2 kg) over weight-for-age for a four-year-old. However, when he returned from the spelling paddock he was found to be suffering from rheumatism in his shoulders. He was treated and left to recover naturally in the paddock, but he missed an entire year of racing—the bulk of his four-year-old season, normally a career ‘prime time’ for racehorses.
The golden horse of the previous Sydney Autumn Carnival resumed racing in March 1934 and took a while to get back to his peak. Unplaced over a mile at Randwick on 3 March, he improved to run a good second to old rival Rogilla two weeks later at Rosehill, but was unplaced a week later behind the mighty New Zealand mare Silver Scorn in the Chipping Norton Stakes at Warwick Farm.
Silver Scorn had won twelve races from thirteen starts as a three-year-old and was hot favourite for the AJC Autumn Plate a week after her Chipping Norton victory.
It seemed that Peter Pan had turned the corner, however, and was finding his old form under McGrath’s patient training. He trounced Silver Scorn by 2½ lengths in the Autumn Plate and followed up that win with another in the 2-mile Cumberland Plate only four days later.
Just three days after that, Peter Pan was again the punter’s favourite as Jim Pike took him out onto the track to run against a classy field, including his old foe Rogilla, in the 1½-mile (2400-metre) Kings Cup.
Once again the big chestnut had another of his ‘blond moments’. Nicknamed the ‘Blond Bombshell’, after sultry movie star Jean Harlow, Peter Pan, with his gold coat and silver mane and tail, was possibly the most beautiful horse that ever became a champion in Australia, but at times it was almost as if he had a touch of Three Stooges mayhem in his make-up.
Racing neck and neck with Rogilla, Peter Pan suddenly seemed to resent his old rival’s persistence. Travelling flat-out, Peter Pan turned his head to bite Rogilla as they neared the winning post, and the terrified Rogilla stuck out his head to avoid the stallion’s attack, and won the race by a head!
It certainly appeared that the great stayer had recovered from his crippling rheumatism, even if his manners had not been improved by the lengthy spell. That autumn campaign was his worst ever—six starts for two wins, two seconds and two unplaced runs—but Frank McGrath was satisfied that the horse was back to his old self, and promptly spelled him to await the spring carnivals.
Perhaps the ‘Blond Bombshell’ knew the score between himself and his rival when he delivered the ‘lovebite’ to Rogilla. The tactic certainly cost Peter Pan victory in the Kings Cup and it didn’t scare off Rogilla effectively either; Peter Pan finished second to him again when he resumed racing in the Chelmsford Stakes in the spring of 1934. So, unfortunately for our chestnut hero, it was not a case of ‘once bitten, twice shy’.
Frank McGrath then made a tactical move that confounded the critics. He entered Peter Pan in a 7-furlong sprint race, against the mighty Chatham, at the Victoria Park racetrack. Victoria Park is now a housing estate beside busy Southern Cross Drive near Moore Park, but it was once a beautiful showpiece proprietary racecourse owned by racing entrepreneur Sir James Joynton Smith, and rivalled Randwick as Sydney’s premier racetrack in its heyday.
A huge crowd flocked to see the ‘Blond Bombshell’ race against Chatham, who was the sprint and middle-distance champion of his era and started at 4 to 1 favourite.
But the canny McGrath had evidently seen something in his horse’s behaviour that made him believe he could go against all racing common sense and bring a stayer back from 9 furlongs to 7 at his second start in a campaign. As usual Frank McGrath’s intuition was spot on—Peter Pan defeated the mighty sprinter and set a course record for 7 furlongs at Victoria Park.
Ten days later, Peter Pan was sent out favourite at odds-on in the AJC Spring Stakes at a mile and a half, only to be beaten by a head by his old nemesis Rogilla. This time Rogilla won fair and square, without the aid of a bite from his rival. That made it four times in a row that Peter Pan had finished second to Rogilla; perhaps the record-breaking sprint at Victoria Park had taken the edge off him.
Rogilla and Peter Pan had now clashed ten times, with Rogilla winning on six occasions. Rogilla was a champion himself, a horse who won 26 races including the Caulfield and Sydney Cups. He was never able to beat Peter Pan again, however, losing every one of his final seven clashes against the champion chestnut.
The Craven Plate over 10 furlongs looked like another match race between Peter Pan and Rogilla. But this time it was Chatham’s time to turn the tables on them both. As Peter Pan, at 10 to 9, and Rogilla, at 6 to 4, engaged in their usual head-to-head struggle down the straight, Chatham, at 8 to 1, swept past them to win by a length.
The three clashed again, with Melbourne Cup winner of 1933, Hall Mark, in the Melbourne Stakes on the first day of the Spring Carnival at Flemington. Peter Pan carried 9 st 2 lb (58.5 kg) and ran his classy rivals off their legs to win easily.
Peter Pan had been allotted 9 st 10 lb (61.5 kg) for the Melbourne Cup, certainly a champion’s weight. However, his win on the Saturday had convinced McGrath that the mighty horse was ready for another Cup win and the public were behind him also, making him equal early favourite at 5 to 1 despite his big weight. Then the weather conspired against the great horse.
The day before the Cup was run, Melbourne turned on one of its worst rainstorms: it poured and poured all day and Cup Day saw grey skies and more rain on its way. The track was a swamp, all form was ‘out the window’ and Peter Pan, still suffering from his perennial rheumatism which always worsened in wet weather, and carrying almost 10 stone, looked like a dead duck. Even the mug punters deserted the champion. He drifted alarmingly in the betting, out to 14 to 1.
With Jim Pike suspended, McGrath engaged Darby Munro to ride his champion in Melbourne. ‘Demon’ Darby was usually Rogilla’s regular rider, but he had ridden Peter Pan before and won on him in Sydney and in the Melbourne Stakes.
The Cup field was as good as you could imagine that year. It included the previous year’s winner Hall Mark, Rogilla, dual derby winner Theo, the great staying mare Sarcherie, and the winners of the Moonee Valley, Australian and Sydney Cups. The rain had made the surface a swamp and the result would surely be no more than a lottery of luck.
It was a gloomy scene in the saddling paddock, literally and metaphorically, as Frank McGrath legged Darby Munro onto the rheumatic five-year-old’s back. All the trainer could think to say to the crack jockey as they looked at the bog track, made worse than ever by
a day’s racing, was, ‘Don’t worry, they all have to go through it.’ They both knew the truth, however—they all didn’t have to carry 9 stone 10! Perhaps the Blond Bombshell was truly a ‘dead duck’.
As it transpired, however, Peter Pan turned out to be what racing people call ‘a real duck’.
In what was a daring decision, Munro decided it was better for the champion stayer to run further on firmer ground than plough through puddles with the huge weight. He kept Peter Pan out wide all the way down the straight the first time and all around the course in the 2-mile marathon. At the turn he took the lead and raced away, still well off the fence, to defeat Sarcherie by 3 lengths slowing down, with LaTrobe third.
Munro’s daring ride had managed to keep Rodney Dangar’s orange and green-hooped silks cleaner than most, and he now had £5200 in prizemoney to help pay the cleaning bills.
Had Munro’s bold move failed, he would no doubt have copped a lot of criticism. As it turned out, the tactic paid off and Peter Pan did the rest, running as some said ‘an extra furlong or two’. He was going so well in the running that Munro later told McGrath and others, ‘I was sure we would win with half a mile to go.’
So Peter Pan went into the record books as only the second horse to win two Melbourne Cups, after Archer in 1861 and 1862.
As he seemed quite well after his marathon run in the mud on the Tuesday, Frank McGrath sent him around again on the Saturday, in the 14-furlong Duke of Gloucester Cup. Ridden again by Darby Munro, and carrying top-weight of 9 st 7 lb (60.5 kg), he easily defeated Sydney Cup winner Broad Arrow.
All Sydney was waiting to see their glamorous history-making champion, so the horse was rushed back to Sydney to run in the Duke of Gloucester Plate twelve days later. He finished a tired sixth behind Oro and was sent for another of those therapeutic long spells his trainer was so keen on. No horse ever deserved a holiday more.