By Jordan Gerrans
Born with a horseshoe lung and often restricted to spending days on the couch, Peter Rowe just wanted to head to the races like others in his family.
The son of long-time Cairns trainer Trevor, Peter struggled as a kid with his condition, with a flu or cold often turning bad quickly as he was in and out of hospital.
Horseshoe lung is a rare congenital anomalies of the lung.
With his family entrenched in the racing code, young Peter was desperate to be involved and would at home watch and re-watch the replays of the local and interstate races, while trying to call them himself.
It was his way of staying in touch with his relatives' passion when he was often restricted to the family home.
He would pretend to be like Wayne Wilson or one of the other great callers of the time.
“I really enjoyed it,” Peter remembers.
“It has gone on since then.”
Peter’s condition has improved over the years, he is now able to live a regular life, noting swimming helped a lot as a kid as it strengthened his lungs.
And, as his health was no longer as much of a concern as it once was, Peter chased his dream of becoming a race caller, while also helping out at his old man’s barn.
He called his first meeting as a 15-year-old, when the voice of racing in FNQ – Bluey Forsyth – was unable to be on hand at a race day.
This Saturday, Peter will call his second feature race of the Cairns carnival – the annual Newmarket – as he did last year, while also preparing a big team of horses.
It is a rare occurrence for a regular race caller to have a stable of gallopers in work the size of Peter’s.
“He has a real craft and he loves it, you need to have passion in a job like this and he has it,” Forsyth said.
“He is nurturing his craft and his skills and his talent is starting to shine through.
“He has a passion for the industry and that is what makes you successful, when you put your heart and hard yards into something, which is what Pete does.”
Forsyth is still the mainstay caller north of Townsville, but when Cairns Jockey Club have a massive race day with nine or ten races, he will often hand Peter one or two.
The late Dick Chant commanded the Cannon Park caller’s position for decades and Forsyth has since taken over.
The calling spot at the Cairns track is named after the great Chant and Forsyth has began to hand the baton over to Rowe, slowly but surely.
The smiling Forsyth still has a number of good years left in his calling career yet, but he has an eye to handing over the permanent duties to his understudy, eventually.
With around a dozen horses in work, Rowe can manage calling a few races here or there, but is likely to need to make a decision on what interest he pursues on a constant basis when Forsyth does hang up the binoculars.
“I would love to take over calling full-time when Bluey does finish up but there is then questions around what happens with my training side of things and helping dad, as well,” Peter said.
“It has been good lately; we have got good staff and we can get it all sorted and then I can get away and call a race or two.
“If I would do it on a full-time basis, I would have to pick either training or calling.
“Hopefully Bluey has a few more good years in him as I do not want to make that decision just yet.”
Peter has worked hard to perfect his craft.
He often spoke with the late legend Wilson before his death.
“He was fantastic,” Rowe said of Wilson’s influence.
“I would send tapes to him, I did the same to Luke Marlow and Josh Fleming, they have helped me out along the way.
“They have both been fantastic for me.”
With a good crop of babies coming through and a loyal group of clients, Peter is leaning towards sticking with training if the full-time callers position were to come up today.
But, he is pleased to be able to share his passions for now while Forsyth commands the microphone.
Forsyth thinks he could comfortably take on the main job if he was to decide to pursue it.
“I have always enjoyed it, it is something different and obviously I do not get to do it as often as I like with so many horses in work, but I try and help Bluey out when I can,” Peter said.
“It is not an easy gig, people take it for granted as you see people on social media getting sprayed for making mistakes, but when you are behind the binoculars, it is not as easy as you think.”
Peter is yet to call a race where he has trained the winner, but did call a race that he owned the winner, which his dad prepared.
The Cairns Newmarket is the feature event of Saturday’s racing from FNQ, before the Cairns Cup in seven days’ time.
Peter will have a number of runners from his stable compete across the program this Saturday.
