Son of the reigning retired SA Champion Paul Peter. Tony Peter saddles his first runner as a fully fledged trainer today at Vaal.
Peter was assistant to his father, Paul, who gave up training in September, despite having won the Champion Trainers’ title last season.
Tony Peter – starts his new career today (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Tab4Racing reports that Tony was offered the option of taking over the stable when his Dad gave up and joined the family business. However, he soon discovered that it was not for him.
“I’m not really built to work in the paint shop,” he said on Tuesday. “I started off from scratch and was just not suited to that sort of job. I left school when I was 16 and went straight to work with the horses. So, I decided to come back but at a much smaller scale.”
Now he is back at Turffontein and has a small string of 10 horses to start off with. “I’ve got some good owners and most of my horses belong to Basie and Suzette Viljoen.
“They actually tried to talk me into staying when my dad gave up and when I decided to come back, they gave me lots of support.They are unbelievable people and I feel blessed and honoured to be training for them.”
Peter has one runner today at the Vaal in Virginia Beach in Race 1, a Maiden Juvenile Plate for fillies over 800m.
She is one of five unraced fillies in the nine-horse race and Peter believes she is quite decent.
“She’s a nice Silvano filly out of a fast Captain Al mare. She is precocious but I would be happier if the race was over 1000m or 1200m.
“I’ve got nothing to work her with at the moment so I can’t really get an indication. But she should be in the places.”
Virginia Beach is a full sister to Johan Janse van Vuuren trained Vivacious Spirit who is a decent sprinter, having run four times for a win and two close-up second places.
She will be ridden by Calvin Habib who was very happy with her work but agrees she would be better over a touch further.
The runner to beat looks to be Robyn Klaasen-trained Heirloom who has placed behind two talent runners.
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