As some of you seemed to have enjoyed my post on William Penn it would be remiss of me not to share another memorable experience I had with this great horse :
We move on a year from the Queen’s Plate of 1972.
William Penn was by now an 11 year old and the 1973 Metropolitan Stakes loomed. The red hot (odds on) favourite for the race was In Full Flight – a joint winner of the 1972 Cape Guineas with Sentinel and facile winner of the 1972 Queen’s Plate and 1972 Durban July. Descriptions such as ‘machine’ and ‘unbeatable’ were being bandied about in describing him. The modern equivalent in recent years for this type of hyperbole would have been ‘Bring On Frankel’ ; a much beloved claim made quite regularly by local posters upon witnessing a Kwazulu maiden win its first race on the polytrack after 22 attempts.
By now I had completed my military service and had returned to my place of employ at Barclays Bank. (Back in those days working for a bank was very popular as we were paid in full whilst doing our national service). My dirty little secret was that I was by now a confirmed but covert horse racing addict. Professing any sort of passion for the sport was likely to be career limiting if one worked in a bank. Clearly they knew something! The era of bankers such as the erstwhile chairman of Investec Bank consorting with the likes of Markus Jooste still lay in the future. In those days racing & bankers was most definitely frowned upon by employers and polite society.
With the Met looming we had the Gr 3 Cape Trial (a supposed warmup for the Met) scheduled at Milnerton on January 10th over 1400 metres.
Side bar : January 10th was a Wednesday. A problem for normal working stiffs but not for us ‘bankers’. In those days banks closed at 13:00 hrs on a Wednesday and a substantial number of banking staff headed off to the racecourse where they moonlighted as tote staff to supplement their generally poor bank salaries. I had a friend in the bank who, in an unguarded moment, had admitted to being a racing fan. So off we went together.
The reason for this uncharacteristic visit to the course on a Wednesday was, of course, William Penn. He was competing in the Cape Trial. I was not going to miss that!
Unless you are familiar with the now defunct Milnerton Racecourse you will have difficulty in appreciating how the wind could blow there. It was blowing that Wednesday. Properly.
Garth Puller was engaged to ride William Penn. (Perhaps somebody close to the Puller stable could ask Garth to confirm this but I have a sneaking suspicion that he was a late replacement for Bert Abercrombie). To the best of my knowledge it was the first and only occasion that Garth rode this horse.
In those days I was not afraid to have a bet. I took R75/50 (15/10) on William Penn. That might have the modern reader rolling about laughing but I only earned R133 pm so would respond by asking when last you wagered 37% of your total monthly salary on a horse in one bet?
Hardly had the wager been struck than I began to have serious doubts. The market was coming strongly for a horse from the Syd Laird yard called Jocante. (Those were the years when visiting horses from Durban regularly rubbed our noses in it during the Cape season and long before that centre deteriorated to a level that is probably, on balance, almost weaker than PE today). More unsettling was the reality that William Penn (58,5kg) was conceding 18,7 pounds in weight to Jocante (50kg). To say nothing of the age difference.
Predictably Jocante adopted a ‘catch me if you can’ tactic and was still well clear coming into the last 200 metres.
That last 200 metres was agonising as the field looked as if it was running on the spot into the teeth of the roaring south-easter. William Penn made a run wide out so was marginally shielded from the full force of the gale. To our unbridled (hysterical?) delight he got up to win on the line and land the gamble for me. My friend was appalled to learn that I had bet R50 on him as opposed to his R1 each way bet; which was the standard sized wager back then.
In a career spanning from 2nd February 1964 until the 17th February 1973 I had witnessed and participated only in the closing stages of this great horse’s exploits and his very last win.
My thanks to the Form Organisation for providing the Race Record.
Last edit: 4 years 5 months ago by Garrick.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Dave Scott, Mac, Pirhobeta, Felix
If their is one thing I can say from watching and betting on Garth Puller all these years...and we only saw him in the winter season here in Natal...is that he could ride a finish from behind...inevitably he would get them home, and I would be heartbroken in a close finish if my money was not on his mount, because then there was no pay-pay...:lol:
Thanks Garrick,I love these stories and have heard lots about William Penn
I only started racing in 1977 and even with Muis Roberts around there would be no better than Gart Puller
He was nicknamed "The Head Waier'
Loong after he got that name a horse called The Head Water came around and GP rode him
Needless to say I bankered it and won atidy sum in thhe Jackpot and Quinpot
No P6 at the time.
