Last Friday’s Fairview feature, the R175 000 Peter Stewart Memorial November Handicap, was raced in honour of a passionate racing man.
The 1400m feature produced an upset result with the 14-1 Alan Greeff-trained Bold Resolve staying on best under Charles Ndlovu to beat the supremely consistent Global Drummer (15-10) by a half length in a time of 81,85 secs.
Charles Ndlovu gives the salute as Bold Resolve returns (Pic – Pauline Herman)
The Varsfontein bred Bold Resolve is a son of Master Of My Fate (Jet Master) out the unraced Jallad mare, Queen Of All.
He cost R600 000 at nationals and has won 7 races with 11 places from 33 starts for stakes of R472 138.
Peter Graham Stewart was born in Exeter , England in 1922. He went through schooling locally and matriculated. He then studied accounting through Warings Bank and qualified. In September 1939 war broke out and in 1941 he went through training as an aircraftsman. Later in 1941 he was selected to be trained as a pilot under the War Air Training Scheme and was sent by ship with 3000 other troops to South Africa.
Upon arrival he was dispatched to No.3 Air School in Wonderboom where his first entry in his log book is on September 8, 1942 in a DeHavilland D8. On September 23, 1942 he went solo and later that year became an Instructor and was transferred variously to Waterkloof. Standerton, Bloemfontein and finally 42 Air School in Port Elizabeth .
He and his colleagues were itching to join the battles raging in North Africa and Europe , but the war effort required many pilots and hence he served out the war as an Instructor to churn them out and in late 1945 was demobbed and returned to England.
However, he had fallen for South Africa and in 1947 emigrated back and settled in Port Elizabeth where he later married Anne Curtis. He worked for Cadbury Schweppes for most of his life and served as the Financial Director for many years.
He was a community man and served as President of the P.E Club , Round Table ,Toastmasters , Community Chest and was Chairman of the P.E Branch of the South African Airforce Association for some years . One of his passionate fund raisers for the less fortunate servicemen was the Fairview Race Day sponsored by SAAFA which is still held annually.
- Ed – with kind thanks to Nadine Low Ah Kee for assistance with the information.
