Peter Poston was a Smithfield meat wholesaler by trade. He also owned and trained a string of racehorses, first at Exning, then at Ingatestone, in Essex, before settling at Raylands Stables, Rayes Lane, Newmarket, in 1969. Although based in the south, he had most of his runners at Northern and Scottish tracks, making the most of the generous travel allowance the Levy Board used to pay in those days. It meant that, effectively, he rarely trained a loser, for each of his horses, whether they’d finished first or last, returned home having shown a profit.
The Levy Board was an essential part of Poston’s training operation, which was at its height from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. At one time he had as many as 35 horses in the yard, all of which he owned himself.
Poston was well-known for giving his apprentices plenty of opportunities – which doubtless saved him money that would otherwise be spent employing a professional jockey.
He gave his horses plenty of chances too; he certainly wasn’t one to keep them wrapped in cotton wool. Sound Advice ran 65 times before winning his one and only race at Lanark. High Water, Grand Avenue, Mill Green, Dire Straits and Fat Jack between them had 313 races for a collective score of 17 wins.
Those were the good ones. Grave Doubts, Worthy Friend and Absolute ran a total of 110 races between them without a single victory, while Peggy’s Pet remained a maiden after 62 attempts spread over three seasons.
Many of those horses were partnered by Bevan Freeman, who was apprenticed to Poston in the mid-1960s and rode his first winner on High Water in the Netherton Handicap Stakes at Hamilton Park on Saturday, May 22, 1965. His second followed just two days later, on the Monday of that same Hamilton fixture on Palmanda. Those were the only winners he rode that year.
Born in 1949, Bevan Freeman went on to ride a total of 19 winners, all bar four of them for Peter Poston. His tally of nine in 1966 comprised two on Grand Avenue, two on Fat Jack, one each on High Water and Mill Green, plus two for Warwick trainer Arthur Thomas on Avon Princess and one for Wirral handler Colin Crossley on Ballyalley.
His 1967 season began will with a double in the first two races at Ayr on April 22, aboard Peter Poston’s pair Bramble and Mill Green. Arthur Thomas’s Final Look was his next winner, at Lanark on May 1, followed by Grand Avenue at Catterick two days later and Mill Green at Ayr ten days after that. But he then suffered a mishap at Ayr on June 2, when he broke a collarbone in a fall from Superior Complex two furlongs out.
The best horse Bevan rode was Dire Straits, who gave him the biggest success of his career on just his third ride back from that collarbone injury when landing the £1,040 Dobson Peacock (3yo) Handicap on June 29 at Newcastle’s Northumberland Plate fixture. The combination was out of their depth when taking on tougher opposition in the Ripon St Leger Trial in August but performed creditably when finishing sixth in the valuable Long John Scotch Whisky Handicap at Ayr in September.
Bevan’s last two winners that year were both courtesy of Mill Green, the second of those being at Beverley in the five-furlong Hedon Stakes on October 25, 1967. He had what turned out to be his final ride on Dire Straits, finishing sixth in the St Anne’s Handicap at Haydock on the penultimate day of the season, Friday, November 3, 1967.
Bevan Freeman's career was ended by a serious pelvic injury incurred in a fall on the gallops at Newmarket.
Richard Hutchinson took over the mantle of Peter Poston’s senior apprentice and eventually went on to forge a successful career as a Northern-based journeyman jockey.
As for Peter Poston, his best horse was the front-running Homefield, who gave him his biggest success when winning the Tennent Trophy at Ayr in 1973. Homefield was a maiden five-year-old at the start of that season but he ended it having won five handicaps from 18 outings. Off the course in 1974 and unplaced in all his starts the following year, he returned to form in 1976, winning five more races, including the William the Lion Handicap at Lanark, Scotland’s longest Flat race at two and a half miles.
Bearing in mind the opportunities which he gave his apprentices and his support for Scottish racing – even if it often supported him! – it was somehow appropriate that Peter Poston should sponsor the Apprentice Maiden Stakes on what ended up being Lanark’s final day of racing, Tuesday, October 18, 1977.
There were stories galore about Peter Poston. One is that he supposedly secured a jockey’s licence for one of his employees who had never served an apprenticeship and only got the licence on the condition that he’d drive the horse-box. (He did have a few rides but never looked like riding a winner.) Then there was the time at Catterick when he gave a ride to a visiting Polish jockey and had to issue instructions via two interpreters, as the sole Polish-speaking man available was a fellow jockey whose only other language was German.
Poston retired in 1981 and sold his yard to Mark Tompkins. In later years he could often be seen peddling his bicycle down Newmarket High Street. The sport of racing was the poorer for his passing at the age of 77 in 1991.
Peter Poston was one of the real characters of racing, and many an apprentice, including Bevan Freeman and Richard Hutchinson, had reason to be grateful for the opportunities he gave them.
Bevan Freeman’s winners were, in chronological order:
1. High Water, Hamilton Park, May 22, 1965
2. Palmanda, Hamilton Park, May 24, 1965
3. Grand Avenue, Thirsk, April 15, 1966
4. Avon Princess, Hamilton Park, May 21, 1966
5. High Water, Catterick Bridge, May 25, 1966
6. Fat Jack, Hamilton Park, June 11, 1966
7. Fat Jack, Ayr, June 18, 1966
8. Ballyalley, Edinburgh, June 20, 1966
9. Grand Avenue, Lanark, June 24, 1966
10. Avon Princess, Lanark, June 25, 1966
11. Mill Green, Lanark, July 20, 1966
12. Bramble, Ayr, April 22, 1967
13. Mill Green, Ayr, April 22, 1967
14. Final Look, Lanark, May 1, 1967
15. Grand Avenue, Catterick Bridge, May 3, 1967
16. Mill Green, Ayr, May 13, 1967
17. Dire Straits, Newcastle, June 29, 1967
18. Mill Green, Lanark, August 5, 1967
19. Mill Green, Beverley, October 25, 1967