RACING

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 239, 29 December 1927, Page 6

RACING

“PETER PAN”

NEWMARKET’S TRAINER MAN WHO ONCE RODE FOR AN EMPEROR Every morning at wiry little figure, mounted on a brown cob, is to be seen cantering briskly through the town. He is Mr. “Joe” Butters, who last month reached tire 80th year of his eventful life. For 30 years this “Peter Pan” of Newmarket was the prince of Continental trainers. “Old Joe,” who retired from active training last year, rode horses for the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, trained for nearly every man of title in the glittering old days of AustriaHungary, and in his day won all the classic races run in those ill-starred countries and in Germany. “They were glorious days,” he said in an interview. “I loved the old Austrian aristocracy. They were wonderful people, full of kindliness and charm. Vienna in those dear old days! There people lived!” WIZARD OF THE NORTH Mr. Butters was taught his trade by j the greatest trainer of all times, John Scott, “the Wizard of the North,” who trained 16 Leger winners and five Derby winners. “It was through the present Earl of Derby’s grandfather,” said Mr. But- | ters, “that I went to a racing stable. I While I was at Whitewall, Scott’s | stables, I saw the late Lord Falmouth make the only bet of his life. It was ; over a horse named Queen Bertha, and | was for the magnificent sum of sixi pence with Mrs. Scott. “She won the bet, and Lord l<almoutli paid with a brand new sixpence which he had set with diamonds and mounted as a brooch. BETTER THAN GLOAMING! T remember T. French riding Kingcraft when it won Lord Falmouth his first Derby in 1870. It was, I believe, the worst horse that ever won the Blue Riband. The best horse I ever saw was Kincsem, the Hungarian mare. She was never beaten in all the 55 races sh© ran. "When I was with Matthew Dawson for a time I had under me a perky little youth who was always up to mischief — Fred Archer. He was the most careful boy I ever met. “I remember when the little fellow won his first big race, the Cesarewitch. For several days we waited for the cheque from the owner. Then one morning at breakfast it arrived. “Fred opened it and his face fell. •Well, I’m ,’ he exclaimed, ‘only a hundred pounds.’ It was with that money that he opened his first banking account. Is it any wonder he left £70,000 or more when he died? “Archer was a great rider, but the greatest of them all, 1 think, was George Fordham. He could do anything he liked with a horse. “I think modern jockeys just as good as the old ones since they have : dropped the exaggerated American j crouch. The happy medium is the ideal way to ride. You have only to look at ! Steve Donoghue or young Gordon Richj ards to prove that. They are two jockeys you could not hope to better. GERMAN CHAGRIN “And the greatest trainer to-day is, I I think, Alec Taylor. I call him the Wizard of the South.’ “My most successful horse was Zsupan, which I trained for Baron Nathaniel Rothschild. He won the Austrian Two Thousand Guineas and their Derby with her, and then I took her to Hamburg and carried off the German Derby. “I remember how wild the German owners were. They could not believe that their own horses could be beaten by a paltry Austrian horse bred in England. & I “They tell me lam too old now to train horses, ’ said “old Joe” wistfullv but I could go on for years yet if they would let me.” MEETINGS TO COME December 2S, IS, January 2. 3—Auckland R.C. December 26. 27, 2D—Manawatu R.C. Dec,..u,er 30, 31, January 2—Greymouth December 31, January 2—Wairarapa R.C. January 2—Waikouaitl R.C. January 2—Wyndham R.C. January 2. 3—Hawke’s Bay J.O January 2. 3—Stratford R.C. January 2, 3—Marton J.C. January 3, 4—Soutband R.C. January 6, 7—Reefton J.C. T. n 0—Vi.,.., ,t o -o