When veteran pacer Beetson stepped onto the track at Bathurst a week before Christmas, trainer Peter Trevor-Jones wasn’t aware his ageless warrior was about to race for the 200th time.
Peter was full of admiration for Beetson as the remarkable gelding led all the way to win his 43rd race in a slick 1.55.2 mile rate, with Ashley Hart in the bike. Peter may have remained oblivious to Beetson’s extraordinary milestone had somebody not mentioned it after the race. “I’d forgotten about his record”, says the trainer. “What a way to celebrate his double century”.
Beetson has had one more run since, finishing a luckless fifth on Boxing night. “It’s now a matter of finding races for him”, says Trevor-Jones. “I’m hopeful he’ll get a run in the Walla Walla Stakes at Goulburn on January 12th and the Goulburn Cup on the 19th. After that it looks like it’s back to Menangle”.
Peter Trevor-Jones hasn’t been a regular at the yearling sales over the years, preferring to breed and raise his own stock. There was however, one fateful trip to the APG Sale in 2001 destined to be a life changer.
He went to $9000 for a filly by the highly successful Classic Garry. “My wife Angie and I named her Erin Jean after our only daughter and we had the pleasure of racing her with good friends Rod and Debbie Wenning”, said Pete. “She managed to win four races before developing tendon issues. One of those wins was a heat of the 2002 Gold Tiara”.
Peter Trevor-Jones wins a Gold Tiara Heat on Beetson's mother Erin Jean 22/03/2002.
In view of Classic Garry’s impressive achievements as a broodmare sire, the decision was made to send Erin Jean to stud. Her first foal was a colt by John Street North who was “popping up” with a useful horse every now and again. “We called him Eenie Meenie and had a lot of fun with him”, recalled Trevor-Jones. “He won 9 races on western districts tracks and ran a massive 34 placings. In the meantime Erin Jean had “missed” to Aces And Sevens. The following year we decided to upgrade to the hugely popular Art Major and the rest as they say is history”.
Peter, Angie, and co owners Rod and Debbie Wenning and Martin Sieper called the foal “Artie” from early days, simply because he was by Art Major.
His racing name of Beetson came after he was weaned, when it was obvious he had a ravenous appetite. “He’s never missed a feed in his life and to this day he “demolishes” 6-7 kgs of high protein pre mixed feed every day”.
Around the time the equine “Artie” was named, the rugby league legend Arthur Beetson OAM (also popularly known as Artie) was in retirement in Queensland following a distinguished career as a player and coach.
He represented Queensland and Australia from 1964 to 1981, and has been described by several experts as one of the greatest prop forwards in the history of the code. His deeds on the paddock were exceeded only by his extraordinary ability to eat twice as much as the majority of his contemporaries.
His love of the meat pie was legendary. During his coaching days when his waistline wasn’t such a sensitive issue, Artie unknowingly became a celebrated ambassador for the Aussie pie.
The much loved rugby league icon was riding his exercise bike when he suffered a fatal heart attack on the Gold Coast in 2011 at 66 years of age.
It’s to be hoped he knew of the talented harness horse who’d been named in his honour.
The four legged Beetson was far from pretty as a young horse. “He was gangly and slab sided with this enormous head”, recalls Peter Trevor-Jones. “It took him several years to grow into his head. Mind you, it has come in handy in photo finishes a few times”.
Beetson was sent to the late Ken Smith at Young (NSW) to be broken in. Nobody expected him to be on the track as a two year old, but he surprised the experienced Smith with his capacity to learn quickly and an effortless way of going. “After a couple of preparations Ken rang me one day and said the Art Major colt might make a two year old after all”, said Pete. “It would have been September or October of 2009. To our surprise he was at the races by March of 2010”.
First up Beetson was nabbed on the line by his stablemate Ima Gucci Girl at Dubbo. One week later he was second to Bobbee Dee Dee on the old Bathurst track and followed that with a narrow Gold Crown heat win over Cullen’s Dancer.
At this time Peter Trevor-Jones had handed over race driving duties to Jack O’Shea, who had handled Beetson in his three starts and was locked in for the Gold Crown Final on March 27th 2010. “I’d had a pretty nasty fall at Parkes ten months earlier and gave the race driving away immediately”, said Peter. “Any misgivings I may have had were quickly put to rest when I watched Jack drive Artie in that Gold Crown final. He made at least four correct decisions during the race. His drive won the Gold Crown for us”.
Beetson had 16 more runs over the next twelve months for 5 wins and 5 placings, when Peter suddenly suspected the horse was developing a niggling problem. “I got him straight to the Agnes Banks Vet Centre where a scan revealed a tiny bubble on one front tendon”, said the trainer. “I decided to give him a longer break than was necessary and it was sixteen months before he raced again”.
Peter’s early detection of the problem and his wisdom in opting for almost a year in the paddock are the reasons Beetson is still racing more than eight years later.
One of Beetson's early wins, the 2012 Canola Cup at Eugowra with Jack O'Shea in the sulky.
Between his resumption in September of 2012 and his temporary retirement in April of 2018 the grand old horse won another 32 races including the Carousel Final of 2014 - one of five runs he had for the Luke McCarthy stable. With Mccarthy required for another runner, it was James Rattray who got to win a time honoured race on a remarkably genuine horse.
Beetson later had a nine month Queensland stint in the care of Shannon Price, covering exes with four Albion Park wins.
Image courtesy National Trotguide Peter and Artie have a Tommy Woodcock/Phar Lap rapport.
In the Autumn of 2018 and for only the second time in his long career, Beetson showed signs of impending trouble. “He started to pace roughly behind and was pulling ferociously in his work”, said Trevor-Jones. “Again it was straight to the Agnes Banks Vet Centre, and this time they located a pretty advanced tear in a hind leg suspensory ligament. Artie was ten years old and had done a massive job. He was immediately retired”.
Seven months later Peter knew something had to be done. “I’ve never seen an unhappier horse. He was walking the fences and tossing his head every time he saw horses on my training track”, said the trainer. “Most importantly he was trotting out perfectly sound”.
The twelve year old has had twenty four starts since returning to the track, for 4 wins and 4 placings. One of those wins came out of the blue and gave Artie’s connections one of their greatest thrills. After two wins in average fast class races at Wagga and Bankstown, Peter decided to “throw” the old boy into the Wagga Cup on the new Riverina Paceway.
Driven a gem of a race by rising star Cameron Hart, Beetson came from midfield and got up to win by a nostril from the huge pacer Courtsinsession. “Here was a horse who’d been retired with a very suspect hind suspensory ligament less than a year before”, reflected Peter. “Next thing he’s as sound as a bell winning a Wagga Cup in a brilliant 1.52.9 for 2270 metres. Would you believe it’s his third best winning mile rate ever”.
Image courtesy National Trotguide - Eleven year old Beetson grabs Courtsinsession in the last stride to win the Wagga Pacing Cup last year.
Peter Trevor-Jones drifted into harness racing at the time he was working as a cartographer for the Central Mapping Authority, an arm of the NSW Lands Department. “During this period I bought a little mare from John Mccarthy who was just about to make the move from Bathurst to Queensland”, recalled Pete. “I gave John $2500 for Perfect Finish, never expecting her to win 18 races including the 1995 Carousel final. I left the Central Mapping Authority not long after to pursue a career in harness racing”.
Peter (63) has won close to 500 races in twenty three years of professional training. Before Beetson came along his favourite had been Ameer, a talented son of Stature.
Peter trained and drove Ameer in seventeen of the horse’s twenty six successes including a great win in the 2002 Inter Dominion Consolation. “I was relieved when he missed a run in the Grand Final, because he was a much better chance in the Consolation”, recalled the trainer. “It was a huge thrill to win on such an exciting night at Harold Park”.
Peter works only seven horses these days on his property at The Lagoon 3 kms from the Turnbull stronghold. When I called him on New Year’s Day, he was still shaking his head about the way the old horse had worked a few hours earlier. “I like to work my horses two heats of 2400 metres”, he said. “Most of them are a fair bit keener in the second heat, but Beetson would have run through a brick wall. He just loves his job”.
Peter says it’s a case of “what you see is what you get”, with this remarkable old horse. “He’s completely uncomplicated. Provided nothing’s amiss Artie looks the same, works the same and races the same every time you put him down”, says his admiring trainer. “He’s a real character and a pleasure to have around”.
Of all Beetson’s well known traits, his eating habits are the most predictable. Like his famous footballing namesake it would take a massive distraction to put him off his tucker.
Image courtesy National Trotguide - Peter with rising star Cameron Hart and the handsome Wagga Cup Trophy.
(Banner image courtesy National Trotguide - Chris Geary wins on Beetson in a C3/C5 at Menangle 24/10/2015.)