Peter Kannemeyer
Racing legend and Hall Of Fame trainer Peter Kannemeyer turns 81 today and his birthday has attracted plenty of interest on our Facebook page. The evergreen horseman, always ready with a pearl of wisdom, said that in life, nothing stays the same.
“Take Clairwood – that’s proof of that, isn’t it?” he asked with a distant look out of the window.
In an exclusive chat with the Sporting Post from his home in Milnerton, we passed on the goodwill messages from readers and told him about the ‘likes’ from so many people across the racing spectrum.
We don’t imagine Peekay spends a lot of time on social media, but his landline phone didn’t stop ringing.
“I have had plenty of calls from so many friends and family – Dean, my son and my family; Garth Puller; John Freeman- I better not mention names as everybody is important to me and they have all made my day. The phone has been ringing all morning. Hell, it is good to know I haven’t been forgotten completely!”
He said that he would be enjoying a ‘late lunch’ with his partner Irene Rudden .
Pressed for comment on the subject of Clairwood, he was philosophical about the closure:
”It is progress, my son. Nothing ever stays the same. I went there for thirty years with Terrance Millard and Ralph Rixon. Those were great days. I have fond memories of the place – a very fair racecourse. Now there is more racing at Scottsville. Now that track is not for me! But I’m retired, so I won’t worry too much,” he said
On his health, he said that his bedside resembled ‘a pharmacy’, but that it was mostly ‘aches and pains stuff’.
“I walk the dogs regularly, and my knees give me hell. But the meds work a charm. The only knock-on is that I can’t enjoy a whisky in the evening. So I enjoy a glass of red wine at 5pm instead,” he said.
Peekay added that his knees were suffering the standard wear that many jockeys experienced after a long career in the saddle.
“I rode for twenty years and my knee pain is the price I am paying for that. But I am okay otherwise. I went to my surgeon last year as they thought I had cancer. But after all the tests, he said that if I was fifty, he’d suggest I come back in five years and see him. But seen I am 80, he’d suggest I go to 100 and then make another appointment to see him. That was pretty pleasing news,” he laughed.
The Peekay legend is well documented.
He decided at age 16, to become a jockey. He started with Spike Lerena’s grandfather, Bob Lerena, and over a period of 20 years rode successfully for Stanley Gorton, and then 3 years for Terrance Millard and 11 years for the late Theo de Klerk. A conversation one day in 1969 changed his life forever.
His mentor Stanley Gorton took him aside and said: “Son, I am going to retire soon and you need a new lifestyle. You can’t go on bringing up your food. You are going to kill yourself. I want you to take over my stable. I will give you 80 years of experience, 40 years from my father and 40 years from me.’’
As we ended our chat, we suggested that he looked damned good for his age. He reminded us that he was 81!
“I was talking to my Pharmacist Augie the other day when I collected my meds. I said to him that I am getting old. He replied- you are not getting old, you are bloody old, Peter!” he roared.
